Ambulance trust awarded integrated urgent care contract

Published on Jan 23, 2019

NHS Commissioners in Yorkshire and the Humber have (22 January 2019) announced that Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust has been awarded a contract to provide integrated urgent care services across the region for the next five years.

The contract, worth £17.6 million in 2019/20, has been developed in line with a new national service specification to provide the region’s population of 5.4 million with access, where appropriate, to clinical advice and treatment when they have an urgent healthcare need. The contract incorporates the NHS 111 call handling service with core clinical advice and will feature a range of developments, including being able to issue prescriptions and increasing the number of bookings into GP and urgent care appointments.

Agencies across the Yorkshire and Humber region have worked together to commission NHS 111 telephony, a call handling service and core Clinical Advice Service (CAS). The contract award follows a nine-month long procurement process undertaken on behalf of the region’s twenty-one Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) along with NHS England North Region – Yorkshire and the Humber.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service currently provides the NHS 111 service across Yorkshire and the Humber. The Trust is now working with commissioners to implement the new service, which will start on 1 April 2019.

Martin Pursey, Head of Contracting and Procurement at NHS Greater Huddersfield CCG, which is the lead commissioning organisation for the service, said: “I have confidence that by working together with the ambulance service, we will be in a strong position to meet the ongoing and developing requirements in respect of integrated urgent care across our region and through this, ensure that more people receive care and support out of hospital”.

Rod Barnes, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: “Having provided the region’s high performing and well regarded NHS 111 service for the last six years, the opportunity for the Trust to transition to the new Integrated Urgent Care service is warmly welcomed.

“In line with our Trust’s strategic ambitions to ensure patients and communities experience fully joined-up care responsive to their needs and with excellent outcomes, we are excited to have the opportunity to develop our NHS 111 service to deliver integrated urgent car through collaboration with primary care colleagues, other providers and commissioners.”

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New model of community care in Scarborough and Ryedale

Published on Apr 27, 2018

Patients in the area covered by NHS Scarborough and Ryedale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) will be able to call a single telephone number to access round-the-clock care when a new improved model of adult community services launches next week.

Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust will offer a range of community services as well as health promotion and wellbeing advice in Scarborough and Ryedale from 1 May.

Patients will be able to access community nursing, specialist nursing, therapy services, dietetics, stroke and other services, with care personalised so they can remain in their own homes, and avoid admission to hospital where it is possible and safe to do so, in a ‘Home First’ approach.

At the heart of the new model will be front-line clinical teams working in partnership with GPs, local councils, the charity and voluntary sector and other key organisations.

NHS Scarborough and Ryedale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Chief Officer, Simon Cox, said: “During the commissioning process, patients told us they wanted a model of care that is more joined-up, with better community services that reduce their chances of going into hospital and make it easier for them to be discharged home in the event they do have to go into hospital.

“Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust shares this vision and we’re delighted they’ve used real patient experiences to help shape the new services.”

As part of the new model, every doctor, nurse or health worker looking after the patient will, subject to the patient’s consent, also be granted the same view of each medical record, ensuring patients do not have to repeat themselves whenever they seek treatment.

During the consultation period, patients felt strongly they should “only have to tell their story once”.

Julia Harrison-Mizon, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust’s Care Group Director of Primary Care, Community, Children’s and Learning Disability Services, said: “We believe our patients will find our new services much simpler and easier to use and we also think they will be pleased they no longer have to repeat the details of their medical history or condition each time they see a different clinician.

“We’re passionate about delivering a truly integrated model of care, working alongside our partners on a range of services that we believe will have enormous benefits for patients in the Scarborough and Ryedale CCG area.”

The Trust will provide the services for up to seven years under the terms of an £80 million contract with NHS Scarborough and Ryedale CCG.

Further information is available by emailing hnf-tr.scarboroughryedale@nhs.net

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