Media Releases | Royal United Hospitals Bath

Media Release

Date: 14 December 2016

B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire Sustainability Transformation Plan published

Health and care organisations across Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Swindon and Wiltshire have today (14 December) published their Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP).

The STP sets out an initial framework of how health organisations, local authorities and other key stakeholders will work together over the next five years to deliver a shared vision to improve service quality, improve the health and wellbeing of population across B&NES, Wiltshire and Swindon, and deliver financial stability.

The emerging priorities outlined in the plan include:

More focus on prevention of ill health and earlier intervention
Transforming Primary Care
Making best use of technology and our public estate
A modern workforce
Improved collaboration across our hospital trusts

James Scott, Senior Responsible Officer for the B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire STP said:

"We are still at a relatively early stage in the planning process, and together we have identified the key areas we need to address to allow us to continue to provide high quality and sustainable care. Our shared aim is to ensure that everyone can continue to receive excellent high quality care whenever they need it, both now and in the future.

"Over the coming months there will be opportunities for service users, their families and carers, and other members of the public to get involved to help us to shape and build on these priorities, help us to transform services and co-design solutions to meet the challenges we face with the resources we have available to us. Standing still is not an option."

Overall, across B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) the standard of health and care services compare well to other areas of England. However, as our population continues to grow and people are living longer, often with long-term health conditions, the increasing demand being placed on our health and care services is falling out of line with the amount of available funding. At the same time, health inequalities are widening. Certain groups of people are more likely to develop particular diseases and more likely to die from them early.

We also know that the way people experience their care can be different, with some areas benefiting from better quality health services than others.

Dr Ian Orpen, a GP in Bath and Clinical Chair of BaNES Clinical Commissioning Group said:

"Our plan sets out our emerging priorities to improve health and care services for the 874,000 people who use our services. It proposes new ways for NHS, local authority and other key organisations to work together in order to meet the many challenges facing the health and care system and provides the framework within which detailed proposals for how services across B&NES, Wiltshire and Swindon will develop between now and 2020/21".

A key theme throughout the STP is an increased focus on preventing ill health and promoting peoples' independence through the provision of more joined up services in or closer to peoples' homes.

The BSW Sustainability and Transformation Plan summary is available to download at:

www.ruh.nhs.uk/about/STP

A series of public events will be published soon – please keep checking websites for more information.