The Independent Commission on Whole Person Care for the Labour Party has stated that health and social care needs to be integrated without another structural reorganisation in the NHS, in a report.
The 'One Person, One Team, One System' report proposed recommendations that will be focused on helping people to stay well and manage their conditions to remain independent. It suggested how incentives could be aligned across health and care organisations to encourage them to put people's interests first and for health and social care to work in partnership for their communities without restructuring the entire system.
The report encourages local flexibility for commissioning services as it points out that healthcare needs will vary between different areas in the country.
It identified that the main challenges for the NHS are long-term conditions, poor mental health, disabilities and frailty. The report focused on care being brought together so that the needs of one person qould be addressed by people acting as one team and from organisations behaving as one system.
The report also said that the recent NHS reforms have fragmented services.
The report suggested that extended primary care services could also be a central part of this new form of provision. Primary care systems in England would need to extend their services to provide more coordinated services for people in the community and at home.
Speaking at the Nuffield Trust's Health Policy Summit earlier this month, Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, reiterated that the report outlined structural care without reorganisation. 'We need to reset the NHS for whole person care and for everyone, not just the frail and elderly. This report is a blueprint for the true personalisation of care and only when you take away the barriers can you get good care.'
The report, also known as the Oldham Report, has been well received by a range of organisations.
The report can be found here: http://www.yourbritain.org.uk/uploads/editor/files/One_Person_One_Team_One_System.pdf