Speaking to the NHS Confederation ICS Leaders Conference, the Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, promised to bring forward the publication of a White Paper on Integration, which will set out proposals for how health and care can work better, “as one.”
Proposals will cover new ways of sharing records and delivering digital services. It will also see new approaches to the workforce, which will help staff to move from sector to sector and to promote more joint roles across health and social care. To achieve this, he says, will require a “big psychological leap.”
“We have to step out of our shoes and experience health and care through the eyes of the people we serve. If you’re recovering from a serious operation, you don’t care which structures sit where. You only care about the quality of care you are going to receive. My objective. Above all others, is to stop people bouncing around the system.”
Zero-tolerance
Mr Javid also insisted that respect is needed within the system, saying he has been “appalled” to hear of incidences of violence and abuse in the NHS.
“I am going to have a zero-tolerance approach,” he confirmed. “Everyone in the NHS deserves to work with respect and dignity. They have a right to expect a workplace free from violence and abuse.”
To achieve this, the Health Secretary says he wants a Covenant for the NHS, much as there is for the armed forces and the police, to bring together the good work from the People Promise to action against violence and abuse. “I want to consult widely on it,” he said. “Both across the NHS and the general public, to get it right, so we have a Covenant that makes a lasting difference to people’s lives.
