HEE predicts requirement for more flexible care to meet needs of future patients

HEE predicts requirement for more flexible care to meet needs of future patients The patient of the future will require more care delivered closer to home by a more integrated and flexible workforce.

In the future there will be a larger population with more elderly people living for longer but current approaches to education and training continue to replicate current models of care.

Those are the findings from Health Education England’s ‘Framework 15’, a strategic framework for 2014-2029 that has been made available today.

It was launched at the NHS Confederation 2014 annual conference and exhibition by HEE Chief Executive Professor Ian Cumming in a session entitled ‘future proofing the NHS’.

HEE commissions education and training for around 130 different types of staff. Over 300 different professions and staff groups make up the current workforce.

HEE’s annual budget of £5bn will commission staff in 2014 who are likely to still be working as healthcare professionals in 2060.

Framework 15 sets out HEE’s approach to the various local, national and international challenges in healthcare over the next few years, suggests solutions and ensures the focus remains on delivery of quality care to patients.

Professor Cumming said: ‘When patients turn to us for help in the future, we need to ensure that we can meet their needs through staff with the rights skills, values and behaviours, delivering the right care in the right place at the right time.

He said: ‘The NHS is about people, not buildings. We need to deliver change through the workforce to ensure we are providing appropriate care to meet the needs of the future patient. Framework 15 is all about that future patient, understanding who they are and the healthcare needs they will have.

‘We will need more integrated, flexible care delivered closer to people’s homes and we need to ensure that we are educating and training the workforce to be able to deliver that model of care.’

Framework 15 looks at past, present and future trends across a range of global healthcare factors.