Morecambe Bay thanked for sharing learning about partnerships and health inequalities

Representatives from health care across Morecambe Bay have attended an event to say thank you for their contribution to the NHS Creation Alliances’ report: ‘Health Creation: How can Primary Care Networks succeed in reducing health inequalities’. They also took part in a series of national conversations and workshops around partnerships and reducing health inequalities.

Sarah Baines, Development Lead for Lancaster Integrated Care Community (ICC) and Dr Andy Knox, a local GP and Associate Medical Director for Population Health, were invited by Lord Victor Adebowale, Chair of the NHS Confederation, and attended the event at the House of Lords on Thursday 27 October, hosted by Lord Crisp, ex Chief Executive of NHS England.

Sarah Baines, said: “It was an honour to represent our ICCs and to be part of a really important piece of work around partnerships and reducing health inequalities.

“I was asked if I would contribute because in my role as ICC Development Lead for Lancaster, we had already built up a large partnership network pre-Covid which was able to quickly mobilise during Covid to support our community better together because of the existing excellent professional relationships and local knowledge that we had.”

In Morecambe Bay, there are eight ICCs that are made up of health and care workers, voluntary organisations and wider community organisations who work together to aim to improve physical and mental health outcomes, promote wellbeing and reduce health inequalities across an entire population including a focus on the wider determinants of health.

Working closely with Primary Care Networks and following a Population Health approach, the focus of ICCs is to ensure that people are supported to improve their own health and wellbeing and that when people are ill and need support, they receive the best possible joined-up care. You can read the NHS Creation Alliances’ report here: Health Creation: How can Primary Care Networks succeed in reducing health inequalities?