12 March 2004
Specialist care teams will provide care for chronic disease sufferers, under new plans.
The teams are being created to provide advice, care and treatment for sufferers of diseases like diabetes and asthma. They will remove the need for GP or hospital visits in some cases.
Health Secretary John Reid said case-management demonstration sites will be established within each of the 28 Strategic Health Authorities.
Each site will seek to maintain patient health, but also prevent unnecessary admissions by detecting early changes in condition. The programme will look to discharge patients early and safely where admissions do occur.
There are over 17m people in the UK living with chronic conditions like diabetes and asthma. They account for up to 80 per cent of GP consultations.
Mr Reid said chronic disease has a huge impact on people’s quality of life and consumes a large proportion of health and social care resources.
"There is a lot happening already, both nationally and locally to introduce better chronic disease management,"he said. "But this needs to spread."
"That is why we are launching a programme to establish case management demonstrator sites within each Strategic Health Authority, building on Primary Care Trusts’ existing experience of developing and implementing these approaches."
Existing chronic disease management schemes in the US have cut some hospital admissions by up to 50 per cent, without affecting patient health.
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