Welcome to The Triangle
Welcome to the July issue of our newsletter The Triangle, our first issue since the general election brought about a change in government.
The election results have significant local implications, with representation from each of the three main political parties now in place across BSW and a number of new MPs prioritising the NHS.
We have already reached out to all our MPs, both new and returning, to offer our congratulations. We’ve also provided an overview of our work and sought to arrange formal briefings to support the new government’s priorities.
We have been hearted to see the legislative priorities for health and care set out in the King’s Speech.
The tobacco and vapes bill will do a great deal to help our communities by phasing out smoking and introducing further regulation on vaping. These strong preventive measures will bring about a significant generational change in attitudes toward smoking and health.
The new mental health bill will do much to improve autonomy, rights, and support for patients, emphasising ‘dignity and respect throughout treatment’.
Other policy pledges on reducing waiting times, access to GPs, making sure we have an urgent and emergency pathway that ensures safe and timely access to services and ensuring value for money are also welcome and reflect our long-held ambitions here in BSW.
More broadly we are greatly encouraged that the government’s priorities in the King’s Speech closely align with our own direction of travel. We see this reflected in the focus on prevention and avoidance of ill health, creating fairer and more equal health outcomes for all of our citizens and focusing on integration to deliver more efficient healthcare services.
The speech also underlines the new government’s commitment to growing the economy. While specifics on how this will be achieved in collaboration with the NHS were not mentioned,, we are aware that one of our stated purposes as an Integrated Care System is to support broader social and economic development and we anticipate this is something which will receive a greater focus over the coming months and years.
Improving our local population’s health depends on a wide range of measures alongside those provided through the traditional remit of the NHS. It is through a greater focus on areas such as housing, education, the environment and employment that further progress on addressing health inequalities will be made.
Thank you, as always, for taking the time to find out more about the work of our Integrated Care System and please do share your thoughts about local health and care issues by getting in touch with 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