Q. What are the opportunities that lay ahead for new services and income streams for CHL?

A. The vision for Devolution Manchester is to improve the health and well-being of GM residents by transforming health and social care so that we see improved health outcomes by supporting people to better manage their own care, provide greater illness prevention and moving some services from hospitals into the community.  

We will see the development of local care organisations where GPs, hospital doctors, nurses and other health professionals, such as community pharmacies, come together with social care, the voluntary sector and others, looking after people’s physical and mental health, to plan and deliver care.

At the heart of this will be the way these services work together to provide care. The intention is that everyone in Greater Manchester can expect to receive joined-up care from services located close to the community where they live. This will provide people for example with improved access to GPs, community nurses, social workers, health visitors, simple diagnostic tests, pharmacies and voluntary services.

These Devo Manc “core values” can be well supported by community pharmacies and CHL has been established as a provider company to “tap into” the exciting new opportunities that lay ahead.

• Transforming services so that when people do need support from it is largely in their community, with hospitals only needed for specialist care.
  
• Give patients easier access to urgent medication.
  
• Increase the use of pharmacy as a first “port of call”.
  
• Use community pharmacies to provide better care for elderly and frail people to better support them in their home. •Use community pharmacies to support people to better manage their own care.
  
• Identify patients with undiagnosed conditions earlier, before they require urgent or hospital care.