A new health and social care alliance which aims to improve support and care for patients with long-term conditions and reshape their relationships with healthcare professionals has had its official launch in England.

The Coalition for Collaborative Care (C4CC)* plans to drive a “powerful movement for change” that will ultimately see patients co-design their care which, evidence suggests, can help secure better treatment outcomes.

Patients with LTCs are largely failed by the current system because its silo-focus doesn’t facilitate a ‘holistic’ approach to treatment, and this is what the Coalition is hoping to address via a new approach based on the “House of Care’ framework.

This basically depicts the elements that must be considered by local health teams to bring about person-centred collaborative care, including links with community activities and social networks that complement clinical aspects of treatment.

The C4CC said it plans to actively promote its vision in local areas, offer practical support to patients and healthcare professionals, and work with major initiatives and programmes to show how person-centred, collaborative care can be achieved.

Huge potential

“There is huge potential for people’s expertise to come together in new and better ways that improve outcomes. But this is accompanied by frustration that the promising practice that can be seen in patches around the country is not quickly becoming mainstream,” said the Coalition’s director Martin Routledge, noting that “C4CC wants to work with those determined to move person-centred collaborative care from the margins to the centre of practice and experience”.

The Coalition is currently comprised of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Diabetes UK, the Royal College of Nursing, Year of Care Partnerships, Macmillan Cancer Support, Nesta, National Voices, NHS England, NHS IQ, The Health Foundation, Diabetes UK, British Heart Foundation, ADASS, the College of Social Work and Think Local Act Personal.