Dorset health reform plan could be used as a model to reform health services across the UK

In a report on integrated care released by Parliament this week, members of the health select committee explored methods which would allow to allow NHS staff to develop new skills and the ‘double running of services’ while new models are developed.

In the report, they said that the plans in Dorset were one key example of an area that plans to address variations in quality and improve its finances by changing its acute hospitals and introducing an integrated care system.

Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group plans to set up community hubs in which GPs, physiotherapists and other healthcare staff work in one place, the report explains.

The aim is to deliver more timely and effective support to rural communities.

Dorset CCG's proposals will see the provision of community hubs with beds at Sherborne, Blandford, Shaftesbury, Bridport, Weymouth, Swanage, Wimborne and Bournemouth and community hubs without beds at Dorset County Hospital, Portland, Christchurch and Wareham.

It comes as part of a wider reform into Dorset CCG’s proposed reorganisation, which is aimed at avoiding a projected funding shortfall, estimated to be at least £158m a year by 2021, will see the closure of five of 13 community hospitals across Dorset - including one on Portland and in Wareham, as well as that of Poole’s Accident and Emergency department.

The report also found that Dorset has been using mobile apps to help patients manage their long-term conditions, including diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease.

The report said: "Transformation remains key to sustainability.

"Too often plans are constrained by the upfront funding needed to make them effective."

Among its recommendations is for dedicated national, financial and leadership support to enable the NHS to transform at pace.

Rachel Newton, the Chartered Society for Physiotherapy's (CSO) head of policy, welcomed the recommendations and said they echoed the CSP’s evidence about a lack of funding for transformation.

She added: "The MPs rightly conclude that the fragmentation of England’s NHS, as a result of the Health and Social Care Act, must be addressed, if necessary through fresh legislation."

However, campaign group Defend NHS Dorset have slammed the plans saying it will leave tens of thousands of Dorset residents and over a million visitors without access to A&E and maternity services within the ‘golden hour’, and will lead to the lives of many patients being put unnecessarily at risk.