Kent and Medway NHS Strategy

The strategy describes the key challenges we face as an NHS system. We know we can achieve more collectively, rather than individually, to improve the health of the people of Kent and Medway. Producing this strategy has brought NHS provider organisations, primary care and NHS Kent and Medway together to consider how they best deliver the improvements needed to meet the health needs of our population.

NHS organisations have a range of statutory responsibilities, with regulation, to ensure their delivery. These will always be a focus for individual boards; however, this strategy focuses on what we will be doing jointly to tackle our collective challenges and achieve our shared ambition.
 

This strategy does not replace our organisational strategies, nor does it seek to replicate the work of provider collaboratives or health and care partnerships. We recognise some challenges cannot be tackled by one organisation and this strategy sets out areas of focus for us as an NHS system to deliver greater improvements than can be individually achieved.  

This strategy sets a framework for the NHS system to work together to deliver greater improvements than can be individually achieved. It does not replace our organisational strategies, nor does it seek to replicate the work of provider collaboratives or health and care partnerships. It is supported by a range of subject specific strategies and plans, for example the Primary Care Strategy, NHS Estates Strategy and financial recovery plans.
 

Q Health published a framework for improving health and care across systems (Improving across health and care systems: a framework | Q Community). We have and will continue to use this to shape how we deliver the strategy. We will continue to look to learn from other integrated care boards and health economies as well as NHS England (through initiatives, such as NHS Impact). 
 

Kent and Medway’s Integrated Care Strategy was developed with a broad range of partners, and focuses on the wider, social determinants of health such as education, housing, environment, transport, employment and community safety.  As demonstrated by the Robert Wood Johnson model, these account for 80 per cent of the variation in health outcomes. This strategy focuses only on healthcare and the impact that has on our health outcomes. It is a strategy for the NHS partners in Kent and Medway.  

Producing this strategy is the first stage of our partnership work. We are continuing to work together to agree how we achieve our stated goals, identifying specific programmes of work that will deliver our targets in the first 12 to 18 months of our strategy.  

This strategy is for NHS providers, primary care and NHS Kent and Medway. It is for our people and our population, to demonstrate how we are setting our ambition and vision for NHS services of the future.