The care minister has described the evidence that health and social care integration will save money as still ‘embryonic’.
Norman Lamb’s comments came in response to NHS England casting doubt on the better care fund’s ability to reliably cut costs.
Speaking to HSJ as NHS England published its Five Year Forward View, Mr Lamb described changing the model of care to better support people with long term conditions as “the big challenge of our age”.
But, he added: “The evidence about what interventions deliver cost savings is still embryonic… It’s an emerging evidence base.
“That’s why I think it’s so important to do things like the [Department of Health’s integration pioneers programme].
“We’re absolutely not there yet but we need to do these things with the best local leaders to develop the evidence base around what interventions are particularly effective at making better use of the resources.”
The forward view document gives only very qualified support for the idea that integrated care can save money. Listing a series of examples of integrated out of hospital care services, the document said: “All of these approaches seem to improve the quality of care and patients’ experience. They also deliver better value for money; some may even cut costs.”
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Mr Lamb also defended his policy of expanding the better care fund over the next parliament until it becomes a wholly pooled joint fund for health and social care. He said it was “irrational to have two budgets and two commissioning processes”.
In its forward view, NHS England said the better care fund should not be expanded until its impact in 2015-16 has been evaluated.
Mr Lamb said: “I am with them in terms of evaluating as we proceed, because I want this to be based on emerging evidence… but my direction of travel is very much towards a single pooled budget at a local level.”
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