A funding boost of £400,000 has been secured to support the delivery of the West Cheshire Way in 2017/18.
The West Cheshire Way – a partnership between the local NHS and Cheshire West and Chester Council – is the joint vision of how health and care needs to change to meet rising demand.
The additional funding, awarded by NHS England, will be used to further integrate care to help address key challenges such as emergency admissions, reducing falls and the better management of long-term conditions.
NHS West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group’s chief executive Alison Lee said: “We are delighted that the West Cheshire Way has been awarded funding to further improve local health and care. It will be used to bolster a range of programmes being delivered hand in hand with our partners that are aimed at enhancing community-based care, promoting healthier lifestyles and preventing ill-health.
“We believe the West Cheshire Way puts people right at the heart of local health and social care.”
The West Cheshire Way encourages prevention and self-care while also enhancing the provision of care closer to home and reducing avoidable hospital admissions.
Among its best-known “preventative” programmes is the drive to encourage local primary school children to walk, jog or run a mile a day. Significant headway has also been made in improving cancer outcomes and dementia diagnosis and enhancing the provision of structured patient education.
The West Cheshire Way is a “vanguard” partnership between NHS West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Cheshire West and Chester Council.
Samantha Jones, NHS England’s director of the New Care Models Programme, said: “The vanguards are making great progress and have already made a tangible impact on the lives of patients and the working lives of staff.
“2017/18 is a crucial year for the vanguards, in particular how we further spread their work across the wider NHS and care services. This funding, as well as the support we offer to them, will help them to continue to move at pace.”
