Guest article: Delivering quality care across the health, social care and housing landscape
Gavin Bashar, UK Managing Director at Tunstall Healthcare, shares his insight into how we reach a place where change is embedded and welcomed, and quality care is delivered as standard.
The Government’s white paper People at the Heart of Care has a clear focus on integration and recognising the vital importance of improving quality of life and health outcomes. Delivering quality care is possible across our health, social care and housing landscape, but to do this we need to embed change.
For many people, care begins at home and in their communities. Genuine choice and control about personalised care and support can enhance quality of life and promote independence in a way that matters to citizens.
Embedding change
The focus on driving digital systems that place citizens at the centre of service design and delivery is increasing. Yet to deploy technology effectively, there are significant cultural challenges to overcome.
Technology has historically been seen as an addition to existing resources. Cultural change is required which needs early engagement. Leading from the top will ensure stakeholders have input at an early stage into how quality care can be delivered to the citizens they support, enabled by technology.
Understanding the barriers that we face and adapting as things change will ensure innovation continues to flourish. To successfully build solutions and embed change, we must understand the issues that are faced by people on a daily basis. The more we understand these challenges, the better placed we are to co-design straight-forward and effective strategies and solutions.
Delivering quality care
While technology can be a quick win in terms of the ability to integrate it efficiently, it’s important to consider it in the context of individual differences, cross-system objectives, and how it can be used to support sustainable system change. If used effectively, technology can free up time for the workforce and other stakeholders, enabling them to become more productive in providing support to citizens that need it most.
The aim should be to embed technology so that outcomes are at the centre of all support that is provided, instead of endless form-filling, unnavigable processes and a bureaucracy that sees too many people get lost in the system. It puts both power and opportunity in the hands of citizens and communities, providing solutions that are easy and efficient to access.
When we deliver successful and integrated services, the benefits flow through the system from primary to secondary care, to community and social care. If we get our approach right, citizens can stay in the place of their choice for longer, delaying the requirement for more expensive and complex solutions.
Tunstall Group works with health, care and housing providers around the world and supports more than five million people through technology. Its technology and service offerings allow its customers to deploy new models of community-based health and care delivery that are more integrated, personalised and proactive.
