Dorothy Clendon1, Chantalle Corbett1
1Capital And Coast District Health Board,
Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB), is located in New Zealand’s capital city Wellington, and purchases and provides health services for over 300,000 people.
In early 2018 CCDHB embarked on a journey to unleash the power of Allied Health – designing a new model of care to describe how Allied Health (Therapies) will work to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for our population, and identifying priorities for change.
Over 90% (over 200 clinicians) of health-funded Allied Health in CCDHB is employed by the Hospital. Over 70% of Allied Health activity takes place in hospital settings, either as inpatients or outpatients.
The new model of care was developed using feedback from stakeholders, international developments and collaboration with Allied Health across the district, to be finalised following consultation in February 2018. The new model provides a transformative vision for Allied Health; with an emphasis on equity, a drive for innovation, and a focus on improving health outcomes and well-being.
The first priorities for change include:
- Improving discharge and preventing admission – decreasing the number, time and impact of hospital stays and maximising people’s return to function after an illness or event, particularly for older people.
- Acting early – supporting people and their whānau to take control of their health and well-being through brief, timely advice and interventions and encouraging self-management, particularly for older people, people with long term conditions, and children and families.
- Using Allied Health expertise to improve outcomes and efficiency of the system through triaging and assessing orthopaedic referrals.
Developing and growing Allied Health leadership across the system will continue to be critical to the success of this work.
Substantial investment proposals for 2019/20 are under construction. We will present how CCDHB is progressing these priorities and share our experience of how to introduce and implement transformative changes to Allied Health service delivery.
Biography:
Dorothy Clendon trained as a physiotherapist at Otago University and worked in a variety of hospital and community settings in New Zealand and England. Dorothy moved into planning and funding of health services in a DHB in New Zealand, before returning to England to manage a Community Health Development team in a Primary Care Trust, and lead the Trust’s Patient and Public Involvement in Health work. Back in New Zealand Dorothy worked at the Ministry of Health developing services in tobacco control, cancer screening and older people’s community services. Since February 2018 Dorothy has been leading CCDHBs’ major project on the future model of care for Allied Health across all settings.