Posted on: 7 March 2019
The Partnership is delighted to welcome new lay member Pam Essler to the Improving Planned Care programme. Pam has recently joined the programme’s Clinical Thresholds Working Group to represent the patient’s perspective on planned care.
As the lay member for patient and public engagement at Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group, Pam has a great deal of expertise and experience to offer. She is also a trustee of a number of local charities all linked closely with health and social care so is keen to make sure that patients are the focus of any developments in planned care.
Planned care is when problems with a person’s health are known in advance and the best form of treatment can be planned, rather than treatment that is required urgently or in an emergency. Planned care covers a range of conditions, for example orthopaedic and musculoskeletal (MSK) services to treat problems with muscles, bones or joints.
For each condition there is plan called a ‘clinical pathway’ that sets out the various steps in the care of people referred for treatment by their GP or other health professional. For patients on one of these pathways, there are various points at which decisions are made about their care. Decisions are based on medical evidence to make sure that patients receive the best and most appropriate course of treatment for them. These points on a pathway are known as ‘clinical thresholds’ and are used to decide which treatments will be provided and funded by the NHS to provide the best care for patients.
In West Yorkshire and Harrogate, there are unnecessary differences in some of the clinical pathways and clinical thresholds for planned care which means that some people may be receiving different treatments depending on where they live. The Improving Planned Care programme is working to ensure that such variations are removed by making sure that all treatments are decided on the best medical evidence, no matter where you live.
To bring about this region-wide transformation, local clinicians in primary and secondary care, healthcare providers, patient representatives and partner organisations are working together to review planned care pathways and thresholds. These reviews will ensure that our pathways and thresholds reflect the most up-to-date clinical evidence, guidance and patient insight to offer the best possible outcomes for patients. The Clinical Thresholds Working Group is responsible for providing clinical input and a steer for this process, and for assessing whether additional services should be provided as part of this review.
Once a clinical pathway and the thresholds within that pathway have been reviewed, the assessment and the working group’s recommendations are considered by the Improving Planned Care Programme Board. The board is made up of members who work in hospitals, councils and CCGs, as well as public lay members, and is tasked with making decisions and providing approvals in order to progress and deliver the planned care programme.
The next step is a clinical assurance process before consideration by a joint committee of the nine clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, the organisations responsible for planning and buying healthcare services for their local populations. If the Joint Committee of CCGs agrees, the reviewed pathway and its thresholds will be implemented by each CCG meaning that access to health services and the eligibility criteria for them will be the same for everyone in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
Catherine Thompson is the Director for the Improving Planned Care programme and chairs the Clinical Thresholds Working Group. Catherine said: “The Improving Planned Care programme is bringing together a consistent set of pathways and thresholds based on sound clinical evidence and good practice, from West Yorkshire and Harrogate and beyond. By doing this, we aim to make the best possible use of the resources available so that everyone receives the planned care they need, regardless of where they live. Pam and the other members of the Clinical Thresholds Working Group have an important role in this process and are working together to make sure the programme achieves that aim for local people.”