What is STP and what does it mean for Buckinghamshire?

The STP is is short for Sustainability and Transformation Plan. However I guess that doesn't really help does it?

Well it is really the last hope we have to save the NHS because the Government does not want to spend any more of our tax on our healthcare. So instead they want to split England into 44 regions and have told these regions to changes the way services are provided. Our region includes Oxfordshire, West Berkshire as well as Buckinghamshire. But really our plan is a Buckinghamshire plan.

Apparently if we continue to carry out healthcare activity in the way we have been doing it over the last 20 years it will cost £107 million more over the next 5 years than we have money to pay for it. The costs will be much more than our income!

The aims of the plan is to improve outcomes by 2020/21.

The Bucks plan has seven priority areas.

I will try to  explain what they mean - but I cannot promise that my view is the correct one so I suggest you write and ask for the official version.

The Famous seven are:

"Shift the focus of care from treatment to prevention"
"Access to the highest quality primary, community and urgent care"
"Collaboration of the three footprint acute trusts to deliver equality and efficiency"
"Maximise value and patient outcomes from specialised commissioning"
"Mental health development to improve the overall value of care provided"
"Establish a flexible and collaborative approach to workforce"
"Digital interoperability to improve information flow and efficiency"

You can see that the language is a bit 'management speak' and I will try to explain what I think each one means as best I can. I will do a separate blog for each priority.

I write this on a ward in a specialist centre as I wait for my operation tomorrow. I hope that I will be able to complete all seven blogs over the next week as I recover.