Expert panel report calls for different system of care for people of Wales

Wales needs a different system which provides seamless health and care services – that’s the message from the independent review of Health and Social Care, chaired by Dr Ruth Hussey.

The new report published makes a number of recommendations on how change to the system can be supported and explains, in practical terms, how to meet the challenges facing health and social care services in the years ahead.

The panel’s report includes a renewed vision for health and social care in Wales, with action guided by four mutually supportive goals:

• improving the health and wellbeing of the population
• improving the experience and quality of care for individuals and their families
• improving the wellbeing and engagement of the workforce
• increasing the value achieved from the resources that are invested in services. 

The report, recommends bold new models of care with services organised around the individual and their family, as close to home as possible. It also emphasises that services need to be preventative, easy to access and of high quality.  They also need to be seamless, and delivered without artificial barriers. 

Dr Ruth Hussey (pictured), Chair of the review panel said: “The scale of the challenge ahead should not be underestimated. It is clear that change is needed and even clearer that this should happen quickly.

“We have detected an appetite for change and a desire to ‘get on with it’. A strong commitment to transform not just how much is done, but what and how it is delivered is needed.

“We hope that this report will be a catalyst for the action that is needed, and help to guide the future of health and social care in Wales.”

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said: “This report, a key commitment in Taking Wales Forward and Prosperity for All, sets out some clear recommendations about what needs to change and how to make those changes happen for the benefit of people in Wales.

“I’m pleased that report suggests that what we are already doing in Wales with regard to the integration of health social care services is right, but we will need to carefully consider the findings of this review to see how this can be improved in the future.

“The new long term plan for health and social care will be published in the spring, taking account of recommendations in this report. I’d like to thank Dr Hussey, her team and everyone who has contributed. I welcome the continued cross party support for the review.

“I believe that what we have seen today from the panel will set firm foundations for the future of health and social care in Wales for many years to come.”

To download the report, visit: https://beta.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2018-01/Review-health-social-care-report-final.pdf