In this paper the Commission outlines a number of suggestions that will help avoid admission to hospital by providing better access to care closer to home and creating healthier communities.
It makes it clear that there is a real opportunity to build on changes made during the pandemic and redesign and mainstream new ways of working that benefit the patient by providing more support in the community.
Recommendations include:
- Maximising the potential of community-based Allied Health Professionals and High Street services, delivering care such as pharmacy, podiatry, ophthalmology and physiotherapy within community settings
- Transforming pre-habilitation and rehabilitation services outside of hospitals including using leisure centres, community facilities and digital support.
- Establishing a national tech-enabled self-management service to help people manage and remotely monitor their own health and wellbeing
- Expanding Point of Care Testing (POCT) to ensure technology can support many tests, previously taken place in hospitals, to be undertaken earlier and more rapidly in the community, by a range of health professionals.
Please note: This paper should be read alongside the Bevan Commission publication ‘Doing Things Differently: Tackling the Backlog in the Aftermath of Covid-19’.
