NHS organisations have a history of working together to deliver high quality services.

In South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, Chesterfield and North Derbyshire are often included as associate partners in our work. This is because of what we call, "patient flows" - for example, someone living in Chesterfield may be referred into one our larger hospitals for treatments and so the care provided in our region is relevant to people living in our surrounding areas. 

Background

  • 2014 – Providers Working Together Programme was formed. Its objective was to explore what can be achieved when seven local hospital trusts work together to strengthen each organisation's ability to deliver safe, sustainable and local services.
  • 2015 – Eight clinical commissioning groups working across South and Mid Yorkshire, Bassetlaw and North Derbyshire and NHS England started working together as Commissioners Working Together.
  • 2016 - NHS organisations and local councils were asked to come together to form 44 Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) covering the whole of England. Each of the STPs set out their proposals to improve health and care for patients in their region. The geographical boundaries agreed for STPs placed some of our historical partners in different footprints – this is the reason why Mid Yorkshire and North Derbyshire were separated-out in our local structure leaving us with the remaining five places defined as South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw.

Current Status

In South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw our partnership has now evolved to form an Integrated Care System (ICS). This is a new type of even closer collaboration.

Regardless of the STP defined boundaries, this has not prevented the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw ICS from working together for mutual benefit – and there are clear reasons for this.

Our collective aim is to benefit our patients. Because we know that patients move between places -  such as Barnsley into Mid Yorkshire services or from Chesterfield into Sheffield services - Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust are Associate Partners of the South Yorkshire & Bassetlaw STP.

This means that their leaders and clinicians continue to take part in discussions about the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw System. This serves the collective need to enhance patient services.

Joint Working in Action – Case Studies

  • Hyper Acute Stroke Units (HASU)

In 2017 the decision was made for Hyper Acute Stroke care to be consolidated into hospitals with very specialist staff and skills but also at sites with the latest technology to treat strokes and transient ischaemic attacks (mini stroke).

As a result of the review into the best treatment and outcomes for patients, a change was implemented that now sees patients with a suspected or known stroke within South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw taken to specialist HASU in specific hospitals - Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals or Pinderfields Hospital - The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The place of treatment for a patient who has a stroke now depends on where the patient lives - and which is the closest specialist hospital with a HASU.

Patients in Barnsley or Rotherham are now taken to one of these specialist hospitals with a HASU.

For around 15 people per week from Barnsley or Rotherham that need specialist hyper acute treatment, the chosen specialist hospital to carry out their care should provide rapid scanning, assessments and treatments - including thrombolysis where appropriate.

The decision of the closest hospital is around the potential outcome that offers the best chance of recovery.

  • Hospital Services Review

A South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw ICS project with Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, having opted in, the Trust decided it was in their patient interests to be involved. Many of their patients flow between Sheffield and Chesterfield. For this reason, it made sense for the project partners to work together on this review – regardless of the fact that their STP footprint is different.