Lords Committee to explore how better integration of care can improve patient pathways, rights, and experience
Friday 9 June 2023
On Monday 12 June the House of Lords Integration of Primary and Community Care Committee will hear from two panels of witnesses as it examines the effects a better integrated care system can have in reducing pressure on the wider health system and facilitate a smoother flow of patients through hospital.
The evidence sessions will focus on palliative care and mental health. They will investigate how joined-up mental health care between hospitals and the community can avert A&E attendance and hospitalisations due to acute mental health distress or reduce the amount of time that it takes for patients to be referred on to more specialist care. In addition, the Committee will examine how integration within palliative care can ensure that more patients die with dignity in their place of choice.
The first evidence session will start at 3.05pm and can be watched live or on demand at Parliament TV or in person in Committee Room 4, Palace of Westminster.
The witnesses giving evidence to the committee will be:
3.05pm
- Dr Salwa Malik, Vice President, Royal College of Emergency Medicine;
- Professor Catherine Evans, Professor of Palliative Care, King’s College London; and
- Dr Alex Thomson, Vice Chair of Liaison Faculty, Royal College of Psychiatrists.
3.55pm
- Siobhan Melia, Chair of the Community Network and Chief Executive Officer, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust; and
- Tom Cottam, Head of Health and Resilience Policy, British Red Cross.
Questions may include:
- To what extent are patients presenting at hospital if they could be cared for more effectively elsewhere? If this is happening, why? How can better integration of services avoid this situation?
- What are the main barriers to the kinds of integrated work within primary and community care which will avoid hospital admissions?
- To what extent do people present at A&E with acute mental health crises? How can care elsewhere be better integrated to reduce such demands on A&E?
- What are the main barriers to discharging patients from hospital? In light of reports on the Discharge to Assess (D2A) initiative, how far has the initiative been successful from the perspective of patients and informal carers?
- What one change would you like the Government to make that would better integrate services, so that patients flow through the health and care system more safely and efficiently
