Publish date: 25 March 2022
We’re sharing an example of how joint working across health and care organisations can bring great benefits and result in better care and outcomes for residents ahead of the introduction of integrated care systems in July 2022.
The care home cell in Sefton
During the pandemic, organisations across Sefton came together in a group called the ‘care home cell’ to determine what could be done to support care home residents and staff.
This included colleagues from NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS Southport and Formby CCG, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, local GPs and nurses, the Care Quality Commission, Healthwatch Sefton, Sefton Council, Public Health teams, Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, Liverpool University Hospital Foundation Trust and others as the needs of the group changed over the course of the pandemic.
Watch the video to hear from key members of the group.
How the group worked together
The group came together on a daily basis to organise urgent tasks such as access to community medication and ensuring that all care homes had adequate PPE supplies.
Once the COVID-19 vaccination programme began in December 2020, the care home cell was well established and worked together quickly to deliver vaccinations to every care home resident in Sefton. This involved organising vaccination teams to attend 92 care homes in Southport and Formby and 41 care homes in south Sefton.
Colleagues from different organisations worked collaboratively to organise onsite medicines management, remote GP consultations, roving vaccination teams and a wide range of other clinical, logistical and administrative tasks.
This joined up way of working led to Sefton achieving the highest vaccination rate of care home residents and staff in Cheshire and Merseyside, protecting our most vulnerable residents and preventing a substantial number of hospitalisations and deaths.
A model for the future
This way of working is showing how organisations in Sefton are already working across boundaries to better focus on the needs of local people. Find out more about the Sefton Partnership at South Sefton CCG or Southport and Formby CCG