Gloucestershire has been selected to be one of only 14 Integrated Care Systems (ICS) across the country. This means that health and social care services will be working even more closely together to support people to keep healthy and independent, develop care and services in people’s own homes and communities and ensure high quality, safe hospital services are there when needed.
The announcement is in recognition of Gloucestershire’s strong leadership, effective partnership working and ambitious plans to join up support and services as well as improvements in A&E performance, cancer treatment times and access to GP services. We’ve also seen a reduction in cancelled operations and delays for people ready to leave hospital.
Being an ICS will bring benefits to the county, including greater freedom and control over local decisions about how money is spent and how services are developed, as well as a greater ability to attract additional money to the county to develop services for the future.
Going forward, we will continue to draw on the expertise of others, such as councils, charities and the wider voluntary and community sector, to ensure the needs of local people are met.