How people experience joined up care in Oxfordshire – October 2023
Download (PDF 486.57 KB)Summary of report content
In May 2023 Healthwatch Oxfordshire conducted a survey to ask about local people’s ideas and experiences of ‘joined up’ care.
A central theme of the NHS Long Term Plan is to develop joined up care between health and social care services. This will help patients get timely, appropriate, and holistic care based on their needs, and avoid being passed to multiple services, or having to repeat their story several times. The 2022 Health and Care Act aims to make this easier in England through the creation of Integrated Care Systems (ICSs).
This report summarises the responses of 38 completed questionnaires and follow-up interviews with five people.
It captures the range of views and experiences they heard about, including people’s perceptions of what joined up care looks like as well as their experiences of it.
The following recommendations are made:
- Services working more closely together, especially between health and social care.
- Better communication and information-sharing among providers, and ensuring health records read and updated on the NHS app.
- Ensuring there is a dedicated or ‘named’ ‘patient advocate’ responsible for coordinating with providers, patients, and caregivers across services.
- A joint health and social care budget to ensure equitable access to care and to make financing easier and more efficient.
- More available services to improve access to care, including GP appointments, mental health support, local x-ray facilities, and patient transport service.
- A recognition that services users and caregivers are not experts in the health and social care system, and may be unfamiliar with the terminology that professionals use.
- Greater transparency regarding social care structures and decision-making
This report will be shared with health and social care providers, the Oxfordshire Health and Wellbeing Board and Oxfordshire Place Based Partnership. They hope it helps to complement and support more integrated ways of working in Oxfordshire between health, social care, and others, including voluntary sector partners, which have been emerging in the past few years.