Patients need to be the focus of integrated care

Guardian Health Professionals Network blog by Dr Mark Britnell,Head of Healthcare, KPMG

It's easy to see why co-ordinated care for patients could provide better health, care and value. Many people have placed great faith in the idea that integrated care can solve some of the most pernicious health issues of our time. With an ageing population and a dramatic increase in long-term conditions, it's easy to see why co-ordinated care for patients could provide better health, care and value. However, it's easy to confuse structural integration with what patients really want - personalised, high-quality, seamless care focused on their needs.

Of course, asking people to define what they mean by integrated care often prompts more questions than answers and that's why we need to define carefully what it is we are trying to solve. Integration can be vertical (secondary and primary care), horizontal (primary, community and social care), virtual (systems and processes) or real (mergers and acquisitions). Historically, the NHS has had quite a lot of superficial structural integration and not enough co-ordination and collaboration from the patient's perspective.