Hampshire County Council says it wants to concentrate on prevention to ease pressure on NHS and social care

Members of a county council health committee say they want to focus on prevention as they try to ease the pressure on a cash-strapped and creaking social care and NHS system.
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The council's health and adult social care select committee met in Winchester on Tuesday and highlighted the importance of prevention in the early stages to ease pressure on social care services.

Prevention is one of the main priorities of the council, and following the 'National plan for 10 years' and the 'Prevention Green Paper', the council will work collaboratively with external organisations to support the system.

Hampshire County CouncilHampshire County Council
Hampshire County Council
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Councillor Alan Dowden said that the current NHS crisis, along with the central government's lack of vision, with GPs who cannot attend to their patients, and underfunded social care; will put more pressure on the national social care system in the coming years.

He said: 'We cannot get out of this mess unless we are properly funded for social care.'

Considering that prevention is one of the council's main concerns all the efforts will focus on primary care since that is the first contact for patients.

With proper primary care, many hospital and emergency services 'could breathe and at the same time save thousands of pounds', said Cllr Tonia Craig (Liberal Democrat, Hedge End & West End South).

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Measures such as visiting the pharmacist, properly attended E-consults, new minor injury centres, and extensive implementation of a hybrid system between face-to-face and remote consults would help to reduce pressure on hospitals.

Cllr Craig pointed out that referral to pharmacies could be a solution since 'pharmacists are fully qualified to treat minor injuries. People are well educated to go to the pharmacy if they cannot be treated by their practitioners.'

'If your GP promotes pharmacies for minor health problems, the benefit will be massive for everyone.'

She also underlined that 'certainly GP practices are very busy. However, people are sick of calling at 8am and being put on a waiting list with music.'

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'A "call back" was introduced. People thought it wouldn't work but it did. Could this be applied at a more general level and that all GPs are more homogeneous?' she asked the Integrated Care Board (ICB).

'There's a lot of work to do. We should have more than one way to access the practice.'

ICB's representative pointed out that 'the aim is to be all the same, but what works in one GP may not work in all. '

'Some have 24/7 e-consults, some just during opening times; others have telephone appointments, and others a "call back" system. Different surgeries do different things.'

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'The new arrangements aim to remove variability across the country by putting in place a more standardised and better-understood offer for patients', he added.

'It is not just about health it's about the life of an individual. We must ensure that all citizens can contact their GP whether by phone, in person or online. That is why I believe that the more routes there are, the greater the capacity for intervention would it be.'