A new partnership, led by West London NHS Trust, has taken on delivery of community health and care services in Ealing today.
Ealing Community Partners, a group of NHS organisations, Ealing Council, voluntary and specialist providers, will deliver a range of services for adults and children over the next 10 years, including:
- Nursing for people in their own homes and community clinics
- Healthcare for people with a learning disability
- Physiotherapy, podiatry, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and other services to help people to maximise their independence
- Care for people with long term conditions, such as diabetes
The partnership’s aim over the 10 years is to make it easier for people in Ealing to have their physical and mental health problems identified, assessed and treated in a coordinated way, closer to home wherever appropriate. This, in turn, should improve their overall health and wellbeing.
In the future, instead of GPs having to make multiple referrals for different services, they will be able to make a single referral to the local care team, which will have a care co-ordinator, community nurses, physiotherapists and mental health workers, and will work closely with the social work team. The local team will understand what is important to each individual and offer them the support they need in the best setting.
Carolyn Regan, Chief Executive of West London NHS Trust, said: “We have a tremendous opportunity over the next decade to improve the health of our local community. The launch of Ealing Community Partners enables organisations from across the local area to work together in an unprecedented way to provide the type of co-ordinated care the people of Ealing need.
“To begin with, our overriding priority is to make sure that patients, service users and carers see no disruption to the care and support they receive. Patients will generally see the same doctors, nurses and other health and care professionals and will continue to receive care in the same places as now.”
Claire Murdoch, Chief Executive of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, said, “We’re very pleased to be part of this partnership: it’s better to work together for patients, by drawing on the expertise of all partners and the strengths of each. It’s also better for staff, with more certainty and fewer artificial boundaries between services. These hard working staff all want to do a brilliant job and this partnership will really help them do that.”
Dr Mohini Parmar, Chair, NHS Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group, said:
“After months of planning and preparation together with our voluntary, health and social care partners, we are excited that Ealing Community Partners has now launched. Together we have engaged with the local population, patients and health care staff to ensure that we have commissioned a service which will see the physical and mental healthcare needs of our patients fully co-ordinated.
“We look forward to seeing Ealing Community Partners go from strength to strength in the coming months and years ahead, delivering an excellent standard of healthcare that the population of Ealing needs and deserves both now and in the future.”
