Response on ICSs to the Health and Care Committee
16 September 2022
The Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC) in conjunction with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the National Community Hearing Association, and with contribution from LOCSU, have had their response to the Health and Social Care Committee on Integrated Care Systems published:
The response calls for systems guidance requiring Integrated Care Boards to demonstrate how they have worked with primary care services (in the widest sense) when preparing and revising their five-year plans and asking Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs) to have a mandated presence for the primary care professionals.
The response also reiterates support for integrated health and social care, the focus on prevention and early intervention, and shaping services around the needs and wishes of individual patients and populations: this is how primary care already operates.
It calls for LOCs and other LRCs to have their vital role as the statutory voice of primary care contractors to be recognised through mandated roles within ICPs. This should include as consultees to annual forward plans and any decisions affecting primary care services, in order to connect local grassroots clinicians and proximity to patients with strategic planning and advice.