Horizontal or vertical: which way to integrate? - approaches to community services integration and consequences for emergency hospital activity

Horizontal or vertical: which way to integrate? - approaches to community services integration and consequences for emergency hospital activity The Transforming Community Services required PCTs to decide how they organised the community health services they delivered; vertically integrate with an acute trust, horizontally integrate with a mental health trust, or set up a stand-alone community trust or Community Interest Company? This report explores the impact this choice had on the level and growth in emergency hospital use in older people and considers the wider implications for the NHS as it develops new models of care and integrated care systems.The Strategy Unit