Gwynedd Council’s Cabinet recently visited Ysbyty Alltwen to see for themselves the work being carried out by staff from the Council’s social care team and the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to modernise care and health services in the county.
This integrated approach to local care and health services aims to modernise the provision so that what matters to individual members of the public is at the centre of the service delivered. As part of the scheme, Council and Health Board staff are able to share information far more easily, this means that they can provide services more quickly to members of the public.
With the new Social Services and Wellbeing Act (Wales) 2014 introduced in April, the project based at the community hospital is playing an important part in the work to modernise local care and health services.
Councillor Gareth Roberts, Gwynedd Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Health said: “I was delighted to welcome my fellow Cabinet Members to Alltwen to highlight the excellent work being carried out by Council and Health Board staff. Their enthusiasm and dedication to delivering this new and modern way of working is obvious for all to see.
“Our aim in developing these integrated social care and health services is to make sure that the Gwynedd resident is central to the services they receive so that the services provided meet the specific needs and expectations of the resident and focus on what’s important to them.
“Instead of sticking to the same old ways of working, our staff have been able to change the way they work so that the client is central to everything. This means that the Gwynedd resident receives an improved service that’s designed to meet their needs and the service itself can respond more quickly to their needs, which is so important in these times of ever-tightening budgets.
“The response from service users has been extremely positive and shows the need for us to speed up the work of expanding this new way of working across Gwynedd.”
Gwynedd Council Leader, Councillor Dyfed Edwards added: “As our population continues to age and with the calls on Council services increasing, we simply have no option but to look for new and more efficient ways of working. Seeing the Alltwen project in action underlines the fact that new and modern ways of working really can mean better outcomes for our residents.
“This project focuses on allowing social care and health professionals to work as one integrated team. For example, by working on one IT system their work is made easier and they can deliver services more quickly.
“Put simply, people don’t care a great deal who the person delivering a service works for, what is important to the public is that they receive the quality service that they require. The Alltwen Care and Health Scheme shows that by working together to deliver modern services, our residents receive an improved service.”
Ffion Johnstone, Area Director (West) for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board added that integrated and collaborative working across health and social care ensured that patients were seen by the right person, at the right time in the right place, with care being delivered in the community and closer to home. Patients have one point of contact and a member of staff allocated to manage their treatment, ensuring continuity of care.
The Alltwen Care and Health Scheme currently focuses on adults with physical disabilities and services for older people in the Eifionydd area of the county, with the integrated team of staff from care and health simplifying work systems and processes, to ensure that the client is central to the work. The aim is to expand this new way of working across the county.
