NHS Norfolk - East of England SHA

Key focus/scope

The Norfolk pilot will focus on people with long term conditions. A long term condition often results in patients having a number of admissions which could be prevented by the early use of services or equipment.

NHS Norfolk has been working closely with a number of organisations to recruit and support patients, as well as developing personal health budgets for the future. These include Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People, Norfolk County Council, Norfolk Community Health & Care, British Lung Foundation, Alzheimer's Society, Age UK Norfolk and Crossroads Care in Norfolk.

Overview of pilot and its purpose

Data from hospital admissions in Norfolk shows that a significant number of individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a primary diagnosis, and dementia as a secondary diagnosis, spend significant lengths of time in hospital -

when, if other services were in place, admission may have been avoided. These individuals will be offered a sum of money to spend on services or equipment which NHS Norfolk does not currently provide. The focus will be on maintenance and prevention to allow the person to spend more time at home and less time in hospital.

At the same time there has been a sharp rise in the number of people in the Norfolk area receiving continuing health care who have expressed a desire to look at alternative approaches to care delivery. The anticipation is that people who do not wish to use the agencies NHS Norfolk provides will become employers, by employing their own staff to care for them. It was agreed that these three areas would form the basis from which to explore the opportunities that personal health budgets could bring.

Objectives of pilot

The pilot aims to:

• provide 75 individuals with a personal health budget (and 75 in a control group) the opportunity to explore a more personalised approach to care
• work with Norfolk County Council to develop an integrated health and social care framework for assessing and delivering personal health budgets
• work closely with people, carers and the third sector to help embed personal health budgets in the health service, and promote increased choice

This information has been provided by NHS Norfolk.