Welcome to the February issue of The Triangle
As we approach the end of February and the evenings start to get longer, it’s tempting to think that the dark days of winter are almost behind us.
As we have written here before, the winter of 2022-23 has presented numerous challenges for our health and care services and, while we are not keen to tempt fate and many of those pressures remain in place, it would be fair to say that our system in BSW has coped well over the last few months.
This can be attributed to a number of factors, but chief amongst these has been the admirable way in which all of our health and care partners across BSW Together jointly planned and developed robust strategies to cope with these pressures.
This joint approach has also played a central role in the ways in which we are working to develop our Integrated Care System. You can read more about how we have been doing this in this issue of The Triangle, including a Q&A about how we continue to develop our Integrated Care Strategy.
This strategy will create a road map for a number of areas, including the issue of how we will address health inequalities in BSW and tackle the avoidable, unfair and systematic variances in health between different groups of people.
This is something we also look at more closely in this month’s issue of Triangle, in articles on a scheme to ensure people with learning disabilities and autism have improved access to vaccines and an innovative new initiative in Swindon to encourage people to make use of footpaths and incorporate regular walking into their routines.
Finally, although Valentine’s day has just been and gone, I’d like to highlight the amazing feedback we’ve received for our colleagues across BSW for their hard work and dedication over the last few months. This has been gathered as part of a Valentine’s Day campaign and we’ve shared this fantastic praise on our BSW Together website.
Thank you again form reading this issue of The Triangle and, as always, please let us know what you think by emailing: bswicb.partnership@nhs.net
Sue Harriman,
Chief Executive Officer, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board
Stephanie Elsy,
Chair, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board