IPCHS. Integrated People-Centred Health Services

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In April 2015 the charity Access Dorset published a video titled “Joining Up Care Where We Live”, in which citizens and patients are interviewed about their experiences with care coordination. Some respondents felt that care coordination still needs to improve. For example, according to a member of the Lypoedema and Lymphoedema Support Group, "the hospitals don't talk to the GPs" . According to a passer-by interviewed on the street, the “most unnerving thing” for a patient going to the hospital is to be asked: “So why are you here?”. On the other hand, one respondent who has a heart defect recalled a good example of care coordination. After an echocardiogram, the hospital informed her GP about the results and the GP called her to explain that her medication needed to be adjusted. With her consent, the GP immediately sent the prescription to the chemist. The video also focuses on two local initiatives which aim to improve care coordination through the use of multidisciplinary teams, namely the “Virtual Wards” scheme and the "Better Together" programme. One aim of the latter programme is that better communication between staff will mean that patients will only need to tell their story once. The video is part of Access Dorset's video series “Patients in Control”.

 
http://www.accessdorsetcentre.org/joining-up-care-where-we-live/