Healthier Horizons is a new vision for health and health care in the North West, developed from the recommendations of the eight clinical pathway groups.
View the full report.
The eight clinical pathway groups were commissioned to review NHS services in the North West as part of the Our NHS Our Future (ONOF) programme.
Our NHS Our Future (ONOF) Programme
Its guiding prinicples are:
Better care - people in the North West should have access to excellent standards of care, irrespective of where they live
Better health - the NHS needs to focus on preventing ill health
Better life - we want citizens of the North West to be partners in improving their health and be active in shaping their local NHS services
Groups of front-line staff have been looking at different areas of care, and have come up with some common themes:
- Preventing ill health and promoting wellbeing
- Everyone should have access to the best standards of care possible
- The best standards of treatment should be available to everyone, regardless of where they live
- Doctors, nurses and other front-line staff need the right to take decisions about services
- NHS, social care and voluntary organisations need to work closely to develop and provide services
- Health and social care staff should be able to refer people to the best services possible regardless of organisational boundaries
- Information and data needs to be shared securely across all organisations involved in patient care to keep them safe
- Care tailored to the needs of people will help to break down barriers between professions
- Treatments need to change to keep pace with the progess of new technologies
The past 10 years have focused on pumping more resources into the NHS - funding in the North West has risen by £5.5 billion since 1997, but financial investment is not the complete answer.
How we are working towards this