Dr Foster Intelligence
Dr Foster Holdings LLP
Major new report challenges PCT boards to tackle health inequalities 11 June 2009
The report, ‘The Intelligent Board 2009: Commissioning to reduce inequalities’, produced by an independent reference group of experts and supported by Dr Foster, was launched on Wednesday 10 June at the NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool.
The report challenges Primary Care Trust (PCT) Boards to ask difficult questions about their understanding of health inequalities and offers solutions about how Boards might answer them.
Alan Stephenson, (Chair, NHS Ashton, Leigh and Wigan) Chair of the Reference Group said:
Non-Executive Directors sitting on PCT Boards need to know if their commissioning of services is perpetuating inequalities or reducing them. They cannot do this without the right and most up to date information".
"PCT Boards are subjected to a tidal wave of information but it is the Intelligent Board that changes that information into knowledge and uses it to reduce inequalities. There is a wealth of data available to Boards and it is important this is used for the benefit of the communities they serve."
Tackling health inequalities is one of the most complex and important tasks facing the healthcare system and Primary Care Trusts are in the driving seat.
The report will be supported by a website – www.drfosterhealth.co.uk/inequalities . The website reveals the levels of unexpected hospital admissions across five key indicators, chosen because the evidence suggests a strong correlation with inequalities, and where hospital admissions act as a marker for unmet need in access to effective prevention and primary care.
The website arms patients and the public with information about the risk of being admitted to hospital for heart disease, stroke, alcohol related disease, diabetes and ambulatory care sensitive conditions* rather than being treated by their GP or other primary care services.
People can enter their postcode, and the postcode of their GP practice, to see the information.
The website shows where hospital admission rates are higher than expected, as expected or lower than expected. High admissions can be a sign of the local NHS struggling to meet the needs of patients through adequate preventative health care and primary care services.
Tim Kelsey, Chair of the Executive Board, Dr Foster Intelligence said:
“Our aim in publishing these kind of analyses on our website is to prompt questions and dialogue between local communities and their PCTs and also around PCT Board tables about the challenges they face, and the priorities and plans they have in place.”
The full report can be found here.
*Ambulatory Care Services conditions are a group of diagnoses, including long-term conditions, for which there is evidence that care can be effectively managed outside hospital.
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