Proactive and patient-centred: a health system close enough to care

Panellists:

• Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister, Care
• Steve Race MP, Chair, APPG, Pharmacy 
• Janet Morrison OBE, Chief Executive, Community Pharmacy England
• Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive, The King’s Fund 

Re:State was delighted to hosted a panel event at Labour Party Conference in partnership with Community Pharmacy England and The King's Fund.

Achieving a shift towards care in the community, and in turn a greater emphasis on prevention and early intervention, has long been an ambition of health systems – and you have made this a welcome, defining objective of your ministerial team. 

Achieving this will require a place-based approach in which services can be better integrated around the needs of individuals – maximising accessibility and patient experience. This will be critical to a future in which more people are living with multiple, complex and long-term conditions.  

While some progress has been made in leveraging these services, including through programmes like Pharmacy First, there is further to go. For example, data should be able to flow more easily between providers and settings; opportunities for training should be expanded; and payment systems should be innovated to reflect the vast potential that joint-working brings. Underpinning all of this, is a long-term vision for change: with community-based care at its heart. 

Re:State was delighted to hold this panel with Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister, Care, Steve Race MP, Chair, APPG, Pharmacy, Janet Morrison OBE, Chief Executive, Community Pharmacy England, and Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive, The King’s Fund, to discuss Labour’s vision for shifting care into the community, and with it delivering a more preventative and patient-centric approach.