Improving health and social care service resilience over public holidays: report

Appendix 3: Project Initiation Document

Aims of the Review

The Public Holiday Review will examine the way health and social care services across Scotland are currently provided and make recommendations/identify actions for establishing greater resilience of the service across the health and social care system over public holiday weekend periods in the future, ultimately enhancing patient experience regardless of the day of the week.

The Process

The process will involve identifying the availability of services in local areas and Scotland wide, identifying existing good practice where enhanced services are available over a four day holiday, review the effectiveness of these services, how hospital, community, social care services and Third and independent and other agencies could be coordinated more effectively and identifying future actions that will:

• Optimise patient care
• Avoid patients ending up in hospital unnecessarily over four day public holidays
• Ensure patients can be discharged more quickly, where appropriate, if they are admitted over four day public holiday weekends
• Deliver a multidisciplinary service for patients over four day public holidays (including primary and secondary care, pharmacy, social work, SAS, NHS 24, diagnostics, AHP, etc) to optimise patient flow and avoid unnecessary and potentially harmful interventions like admission to hospital
• Enable local non- NHS community care principles to support patients over four day public holidays

Guiding Principles

Guiding Principles in Health and Care Service Design and Delivery

A service that is fit for the future should be underpinned by key guiding principles:

• Person-centred - for those who receive and those who deliver services
• Intelligence-led - making the most of what we know about our people and their needs
• Asset-optimised - making the most of all available assets and resources
• Outcomes-focused - making the best decisions for safe and high quality patient care and wellbeing
• In addition to these guiding principles, such services should be:
  • Desirable - high quality, safe and effective
  • Sustainable - resilient on a continuous basis
  • Equitable - fair and accessible to all
  • Affordable - making best use of public funds

Working groups

Acute/Hospital –Chaired by Prof Derek Bell (deputy Chair – Claire Bell)

Its aim is to Identify, explore, research and develop options for recommendations to:

• How services currently available can be best measured, assessed and improved
• Reduce the range of reduction in discharging across Scotland over a four day public holiday
• Improve the level of services available in the hospital over a four day public holiday (diagnostics, imaging, etc.)

Primary Care/Community – Chaired by Dr Sian Tucker (deputy Chair – Linda Harper)

Its aim is to Identify, explore, research and develop options for recommendations to:

• Improved the level of primary and community care services available over four day public holiday
• Enhance availability of community services (inc pharmacy, AHPs) to allow greater options for patients and minimise unnecessary access to urgent OOH services

Social Care – Chaired by Iona Colvin (Deputy Chair – Christina Naismith)

Its aim is to Identify, explore, research and develop options for recommendations to:

• Better engage IJB Chief officers with appropriate social care expertise, third and independent sectors