NHS Medway - South East Coast SHA

Key focus/scope

The Medway pilot will focus on people with a neurological condition, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), dementia and those who have had a stroke.

Promoting independence and quality of life is one of NHS Medway's highest priorities. In September 2010, NHS Medway was authorised to offer direct payments to people participating in the pilot.

Overview of pilot and its purpose

The purpose of the pilot is to enable people to have improved control of resources and choice in arranging services to meet their care needs, without it being a burden to them.

The pilot will strive to ensure that people are treated as individuals, with dignity and respect, being without pain and other symptoms, being in familiar surroundings and in the company of close family and/or friends.

The pilot will focus on an initial cohort of 150 people in the first year. Seventy five people will be offered the opportunity to see whether a personal health budget benefits them; a further 75 people will be offered the opportunity to shape the national agenda by informing us of their personal NHS experience.

The pilot will trial personal health budgets with five individuals who have had a stroke, 30 with COPD, 30 with a neurological condition and ten with dementia.

Objectives of pilot

The Medway pilot's objectives are to:

• ensure patients are given the flexibility of making choices from current NHS services, alternative suppliers, alternative services and bespoke services
• promote further integrated working between health and social care
• ensure individuals are able to shape care services to meet their needs without it being a burden
• understand the wider strategic and tactical challenges to be addressed in establishing personal health budgets
• assess the benefits for patients arising from personal health budgets in delivering improved care outcomes and overall patient experience.

This information has been provided by NHS Medway.