The NHS Long Term Plan was published in January 2019 with the aim of integrating care to meet the needs of the population. A key part of the plan is for all parts of England to be served by Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). ICSs will bring about changes to the way that health and care services are planned and delivered across England. Changes to structure can be confusing and can cause problems in knowing what actions to take to make it a smooth and successful transition. So, what are ICSs and why do we need them? In this blog we’ll aim to answer these questions and explain how Healthcare Gateway can support.
ICSs are partnerships bringing together organisations, bridging the gap between providers of NHS services, local authorities and partners. They’ll plan health and care services together to meet the needs of a certain geographic location.
Their main purpose is to:
As of April 2022, there are 42 ICSs across England:
As you can see, ICSs will cover large geographic areas. Because the areas are so large, they won’t be suitable for delivering change within services to meet the needs of local populations. NHS England and NHS Improvement have set out a three-tier system to allow functions at different levels to support each other in integrating health and social care.
NHS England’s Designing Integrated Care Systems in England has a great explanation of the three-tiered system if you would like to find out more. For an animated explanation, visit Kings Fund.
Each ICS is made up of two parts:
Now that the Health and Care Act has been published, it has put in place a legal framework that means health and care services must work more closely together to provide more joined up care. This will make it easier for patients to receive the care required, when and where it is needed. The end goal is for the health and care system within England to better meet the health needs of the population, now and in the future.
We offer a fully managed service which supports ICSs through their digital transformation journey. The Medical Interoperability Gateway (MIG) allows for two-way exchange of real-time patient information between health and social care organisations, joining up health and care services, improving the health and quality of life for all.
At Healthcare Gateway, we are interoperability specialists. We support health and care organisations all over the country to achieve their interoperability goals, and over 60% of ICSs in England are using the MIG. Watch our video showing how the MIG and the managed service is supporting interoperability across Nottinghamshire.
Offering sophisticated and flexible integration technology, the MIG currently connects 5,200 health and social care providers in the UK, sharing a total of 30 million patient records.
If you would like to find out more about the MIG and get in touch with a member of our team, please get in touch here.
By submitting this form, you agree to our privacy policy.
To find out more about our solutions, get in touch.