As a provider of over 40 high quality, National Health Service (NHS) commissioned community care services, Bristol Community Health has always firmly believed in the advantages that delivering care in the community brings. Many people feel more comfortable in their own surroundings and find it easier to relax in an environment that is in or close to their home or place of residence. This, coupled with our delivery of compassionate, dignified care, helps people to live life well.
On a national scale there has recently been talk about the need to bring more care into the community, and this is something that is now appearing more frequently in political discussions. Having witnessed first hand how much care in the community means to patients and how much it can help people, this is something that Bristol Community Health are pleased to see as becoming nationally recognised.
Yesterday, Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation - the body that represents NHS providers and commissioners - gave an interview on BBC Radio 4, within which he spoke at length about the need to bring more care into the community. It was noted that recent figures highlighted that a significant number of patients would be better off being treated at home through community services, as opposed to being admitted to hospital.
"Many of our hospitals know that the patients that they are treating in their beds on any given day could be treated better – with better outcomes for them and their families – if they were treated outside of hospitals in community or primary care." (Mike Farrar on BBC Radio 4, 29th December 2011)
Mr. Farrar went on to explain that many members of the public still view hospital care as the best care, he then emphasised the importance of these long standing views being refreshed and updated to acknowledge the benefits that care in the community brings.
"Politicians and NHS leaders must show the public how these changes could improve care, rather than focusing on fears over the closure of hospital services." (Mike Farrar on BBC Radio 4, 29th December 2011)
In response to Mr. Farrar's radio interview, Health Minister Simon Burns said in a statement: "Modernising the NHS will both safeguard the future of our health service, and will deliver a world-class service that puts patients at the heart of everything it does."
The chair of the independent NHS Future Forum, Steve Field, said: "The old hospital-based system has to develop into a more preventative, community-based system."
And so further to this recent interview, it seems almost certain that 2012 will bring more discussion on this subject and indeed, it is a topic that many people will be interested in discussing. Bristol Community Health believe that greater provision of community based care is a positive notion and one that will help to care for and support many more people in the comfort of their own homes and in doing so, help them to make the most out of life.
To read more about Mike Farrar's interview visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16347119
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