Why community alternatives to hospital admission don’t (typically) reduce total admission levels
Repeatedly, published evaluations show that community/primary care services interventions with a stated intention to reduce total (or forecast total) emergency admissions to hospital don’t achieve the expected result**
Do you like to integrate horizontally or vertically? NHS positions examined
Our latest research paper explores the impact of the different options for integration implemented as a result of the Transforming Community Services policy in 2010. This accompanying commentary reflects on potential implications for the current policy drive towards Integrated Care Systems.
Horizontal or Vertical: Which way to integrate?
In 2011, Primary Care Trusts faced a difficult choice. The Transforming Community Services policy required a complete break of commissioner and provider functions. But what should PCTs do with the community health services they delivered; vertically integrate with an acute trust, horizontally integrate with a mental health trust, or set up a stand-alone community trust or Community Interest Company? Seven years on, this report explores the impact this choice had on the level and growth in emergency hospital use in older people and considers the wider implications for the NHS as it develops new models of care and integrated care systems
Scoping study: the economics of caring
There is a clear moral case for supporting unpaid carers.