Chief Executive’s aim to treat more patients at home or in community

Ensuring more patients are cared for at home or in the community and not admitted to hospital will be the key aim for Rochdale health officials in 2019.

That is the message from Steve Rumbelow, chief executive of Rochdale Council and – since July – the accountable officer for Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale clinical commissioning group (CCG).

Health and social care services in the borough are merging ever closer together, with an ‘integrated commissioning board’ of CCG and council officers forming earlier this year to take responsibility for decision making.

It is an approach that Rochdale has fully embraced as part of the devolution deal that saw Greater Manchester take control of its £6bn health and social care budget.

It is one that Mr Rumbelow believes the ‘radical, big change’ can bring real benefits for residents. 

He said: “Really, Greater Manchester is a big experiment. It is about how we can make sure there is a better health and social care system that does not focus on hospitals – it focuses on getting people out and keeping people out of hospital wherever possible.

“In the main, that is better for patients, but to do that, you have to make sure you have out-of-hospital services in place.

“In Rochdale, our transformation programme is a really good way to deliver some of those services to take the pressure off hospitals.”

Mr Rumbelow says work is ongoing to make sure the borough is served by the ‘best clinical model’ but supported by community services ‘where appropriate’.

Some measures are already in place to ensure people are cared for outside of the hospital environment where possible.

These include the Short Term Assessment and Reablement Service (STARS), which helps people to live at home following a stay in hospital, or where they need extra care and support following an illness.

Stars Plus provides additional support to patients, and their carers, when they fall ill, to help them avoid going into hospital.

Another innovation is a response vehicle known as the HEATT (Heywood Middleton Rochdale Emergency Assessment & Treatment Team) car.

Operated by a team of healthcare professionals, it responds to 999 calls where there is an opportunity to treat people in their own homes.

Mr Rumbelow added: “The important message of this whole agenda is about trying to reduce the use of hospital where it is not necessary and to make sure we have the best possible top-class acute services but make sure they are not used unnecessarily.

“Fundamentally, that is what we are trying to achieve in health and social care and that is what the whole of the NHS needs to achieve. What we have done in Greater Manchester is link that much more closely to places; that is quite powerful in making the change easier to work with.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter