More and more people are living with multiple long-term conditions. But often this isn’t reflected in how health and care services are organised, designed or delivered.
A new long read from the King’s Fund considers what clinicians and commissioners can do to improve care for people with multiple long-term conditions. Here are some of the main points of their new report, which you can read in full here.
Key Points
Clinical care should, by default, consider that people may be presenting with multiple long-term conditions. There are now more and more people living with multiple long-term conditions, and people’s health conditions rarely fall neatly into separate clinical categories. Current models of care based on isolated care plans and siloed service pathways lead to poorer experiences and outcomes for people and inefficiencies for service providers.
Co-ordinating clinical care is vital for getting the right support for people with multiple long-term conditions. This requires changes in how clinicians work, and how commissioners support them.
IT systems, information governance and physical infrastructure are all key enablers of clinical co-ordination. It is essential that clinicians understand why and how changes will benefit them and their patients, and that patients and carers are able to access the information they need for their own agency and control.
Whatever configuration they work in, clinicians need to ensure that they have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and should develop their understanding of each other’s roles to support more joined-up thinking. Training – including continuing education – is important to support this.
