Achievements (EN): The overall aim of ‘Putting Patients, Clients and Families First’ is to improve the health and social well-being of residents living within the INTERREG IVA Eligible Area by delivering a range of specialist, targeted, accessible and sustainable cross border health and social care services, focusing on key themes which include:
• Improved Access to Information and Services – Patients and Professionals
• Reform and Modernisation of Health Services
• Promotion of Independent Living and Citizenship
• Promoting Health and Well-being and Tackling Health Inequalities
• Supporting Vulnerable Families
• Promoting Cross Border Workforce Mobility
Within the timeframe of EU funding, it is envisaged that the following objectives will be achieved for the overall ‘Putting Patients, Clients and Families First’ 12-project programme:
· Promotion of a culture within the health and social care services in terms of how they deliver services to the population within the eligible area through the adoption of a genuine cross border approach and facilitate workforce mobility between the two jurisdictions.
· Facilitation of the health systems within both jurisdictions to work together to plan and deliver efficient, needs led and targeted services for the population of the INTERREG IVA eligible area which will engender a real, lasting and meaningful change to the provision of health services to patients and their families.
· Creation of cross border networks drawn from the statutory/community and voluntary sectors to develop a collaborative approach to tackling common health related challenges.
· Opportunity for the health and social care services, north and south of the border, to pool expertise and resources, share best practice and jointly implement innovative responses to patient/client/community health needs, which result in economies of scale and efficiency savings.
· Strengthen and consolidate cross border co-operation for health, extending the cross border structures into the INTERREG IVA eligible area for the benefit of all the residents of the area.
· Design and delivery of projects leading to improved and timely access to a range of health and social care services for the benefit of patients living within the eligible area.
· Influence health systems and policy-makers north and south of the border to work towards joint policy development and target setting in response to common problems within the Border region and the eligible area.
Strong progress is being made in the delivery of the ‘Putting Patients, Clients and Families First’ 12-project programme in the eligible area. This programme is delivering tangible benefits for patients and clients, throughout the border region, in both jurisdictions and across Northern Ireland. The programme has a strong focus on improving access to services, promoting health and well-being, reducing health inequalities and promoting social inclusion. Consequently, patients and clients are now benefitting directly from new and enhanced services in the border region. The number of patients and clients achieved to date has exceeded expectations, with 45,000 plus beneficiaries achieved so far (against a target of 21,840 beneficiaries).
Each of the 12 projects is currently being independently evaluated in order to guide future development. However, a number of impacts have been realised, prior to the completion of the programme and include:
· New services have been established and the existing services sustained due to the cross border approach taken.
· Services are being delivered across all areas of Northern Ireland, in addition to the border region focus in both jurisdictions.
· There is evidence of some re-organisation of existing services based on the learnings and recommendations from the ‘Putting Patients, Clients and Families First’ projects.
· Resources that have been developed continue to be utilised on a cross border basis.
· New networks and relationships have been established.
· There is evidence of effective partnership work across the statutory, community and voluntary sectors.
The CAWT partners are seeking to influence the health and social care services in both jurisdictions to adopt a genuine cross border approach in planning and developing services. This is being done by undertaking effective communications/influencing and lobbying activities and by being able to demonstrate tangible results with the EU INTERREG IVA funded programme of work underway.
Communications/influencing and lobbying activities are being targeted at policy-makers, north and south of the border, to encourage them to work collaboratively and to capitalise on economies of scale and efficiency savings that can be derived by both health systems engaging in jointly shared health initiatives.
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