Health programme to help vulnerable Hartlepool people to remain in their own home set to hit all targets for first time

An update has been provided on the progress of the Hartlepool Better Care Fund Plan from October to December 2019.

The Better Care Fund (BCF) is a programme spanning both the NHS and local government, which seeks to join-up health and care services, so people can manage their own health and wellbeing, and live independently in their homes for as long as possible.

It aims to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in society, and four main targets are in place.

A Health and Wellbeing Board report from Jill Harrison, council Director of Adult & Community Based Services, said they were on track to meet all four targets in the town this year.

Speaking at the last Health and Wellbeing Board, she said: “In terms of performance the quarter three (October to December 2019) return was submitted in January and identifies that locally performance is on track to meet all four of the key performance indicators.

“It is the first time we’ve been in that position.

“That’s down to a huge amount of work jointly between ourselves and the acute trust, particularly looking at how we ensure that people are able to be discharged from hospital in a safe and timely way.

“There has also been significant improvements in terms of non-elective admissions against the plan, so it’s a very positive performance.”

The first target is to reduce permanent admission to care homes, which was met in 2018/19, with 130 admissions against the target of 148, and the target is again on track to be achieved this year.

Another target is to increase the percentage of older people still at home 91 days after discharge into reablement/rehabilitation services.

This was 85.8% in 2018/19, a ‘significant improvement’ on performance in the previous year according to the report.

Another aim focuses on reducing non-elective admissions to hospitals, and the target is likely to be achieved in 2019/20 for the first time since the Better Care Fund plan was developed, according to the report.

At the end of September 2019 there were 3,387 admissions against a target of 3,504, and a reduction of 3.7% non-elective admissions compared to the previous year.

The final performance indicator looked at the rate of delayed transfers of care from hospitals per 100,000 population, which the report said was also on track to reach its target for the year.

Michael Houghton, director of commissioning, strategy and delivery at the Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees CCG, said the positive performance is all down to the collaborative working.

He said: “It’s not something that happens very quickly, it has to happen over a period of time, so a lot of work and a lot of effort has gone into that over the years to get to that point.”

The Better Care Fund update looked at the period from October to December 2019, with the report put together before the outbreak of the coronavirus.

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