South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System – which is working to join-up and improve healthcare services across the region – has unveiled its priorities for the next five years and is seeking feedback on the proposals.

The ICS was set up initially as a ‘Sustainability and Transformation Partnership’ in October 2016 to modernise and improve the way health, social care, local authorities and the third sector across South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw work together to provide healthcare for the 21st century.

Key achievements since its inception include:

• Improved GP access for 100 per cent of patients with evening and weekend appointments
• Helped 3,000 people with long term physical and mental health conditions to find or stay in work
• Invested over £1million in maternity services to improve care for mums and babies
• Launched a new mental health service for pregnant women and new mums across South Yorkshire
• Employed 825 ‘care navigators’ to signpost patients to other services, freeing up GP appointments

• Improved diagnosis and treatment times for lower gastrointestinal, prostate and lung cancers

Today Sir Andrew Cash, Chief Executive of the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw ICS, unveiled the draft plan and asked all those who contributed - including patients and stakeholders – to share their views on the plan and highlight any areas they feel should be taken into consideration.

Sir Andrew said: “I’m delighted to be outlining our new, draft, five-year plan, today. This plan recommits our ambition for everyone in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw to have a great start in life, supporting them to be healthy and live longer while aiming to be the best delivery and transformation system in the country.  It’s important that we listen to the people who use health and care services, so we are asking members of the public, patient groups and other partners and stakeholders to share their feedback with us.

“We want to know if they think we have got our key priorities right and also whether they think we have missed anything.”

He added: “We have made significant progress in delivering our ambitions over the last three years and we are starting to make real and lasting positive changes to people’s lives across the region.  People have told us how proud they are of their local health and care services but they have also shared their concerns about funding, staffing and the increasing inequalities of a growing and ageing population.

“Our plan tackles these issues as it sets out how we will use our funding, alleviate the pressures faced by staff and redesign care and services so that we continue to offer and deliver some of the best health care services in the world.

Sir Andrew said: “Our vision is to work in partnership with others to ensure that everyone living within South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw has the best possible start in life with support to be healthy and live well for longer.”

The draft plan, which has been clinically led, builds on the ICS’s work to date, and is guided by the priorities within the NHS Long Term Plan and shaped by local constituents.

The new plan builds on the ICS’s key priorities from 2016 which include:

• Healthy lives – living well and prevention
• Primary and community care
• Mental health and learning disabilities
• Urgent and emergency care
• Elective and diagnostic services
• Children’s and maternity services
• Cancer

Additional priorities are:

• Children’s health
• Cardiovascular and respiratory conditions
• Diabetes
• Learning disabilities and autism

Key targets include cutting the number of pregnant women who smoke to six per cent by March 2024; improving one and five year cancer survival rates; reducing the number of smoking adults in SY&B by 10 per cent by March 2024; reducing premature deaths for cardiovascular disease; cutting suicide rates across the region; increasing the percentage of patients diagnosed with cancer earlier and reducing the life expectancy gap between those with severe mental illness and learning disabilities and the general population.

Barnsley CCG is part of the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw ICS.

To view the full South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw ICS Strategic Plan 2019 to 2024, click here.

Submissions should be made via emailing helloworkingtogether@nhs.net by Wednesday, October 23 2019.