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Long term conditions

As our population gets older, more people are living with chronic disease or long term conditions as they are called in the NHS. In fact, research from Scotland demonstrates that people over 65 are more likely to have more than one long term condition than only one.

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Barnett K, Mercer SW, Norbury M, Watt G, Wyke S, Guthrie B (2012). 'Epidemiology of multimorbidity and implications for health care, research, and medical education: a cross-sectional study'. The Lancet, vol 380, no 9836, pp 37-43

Thanks to Abraham George and the team at Kent Public Health for their illustration of this research in Kent and Medway.

The research challenges the "single-disease framework" which has traditionally been the organizing principle for healthcare.

Proud to Support The Year of Care Long Term Conditions Programme

The NHS in England took on this challenge through the Year of Care Long Term Conditions program which takes a comprehensive, person-centered approach to supporting people living with multiple long term conditions

At SIMUL8 Corporation Healthcare, we have been proud to support the NHS Year of Care Long Term Conditions Programme by developing a simulation which has helped to inform and to describe how healthcare communities across the NHS have been implementing this program so that other communities "Fast Followers", can learn from the experience of the Early Implementers and test the impact of implementing a similar approach in their area.

As the experience of NHS England starts to show promise, the NHS team has been approached by Canadian governments to explore how a similar approach could be implemented in Canada. These web pages have been set up to provide access to resources to help inform and disseminate the international discussion on implementing a person-centred organizing principle in the care of people with multiple chronic disease.

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Introducing Jacquie White

Jacquie White is NHS England's Deputy Director for Long Term Conditions with responsibility for improving the quality of life for people with Long Term Conditions, Older people and those at End of Life. Jacquie has over 15 years' experience of working in and supporting health and social care teams to improve the quality of services for and with their local population. Having started her career in fundholding in a small rural general practice, Jacquie has worked across the public sector at a local, regional and national level. She has significant experience of both commissioning and provider development and of supporting teams to integrate care across organisational boundaries. Jacquie has developed and led national transformation programmes. This includes the development of the National Long Term Conditions Year of Care Commissioning Programme as part of the Department of Health's approach to QIPP working with teams across the country to test implementation of the model at a local level to deliver person centred co-ordinated care. In advance of discussions with Canadian colleagues Jacquie White sets out the challenge for the NHS and why a different approach to Chronic Disease is being taken.

Jacquie, along with our Executive Director for Healthcare Claire Cordeaux and NHS National Programme Lead for Long Term Conditions Beverley Matthews have come together to write a whitepaper. This paper discusses the approach that NHS England has taken in adopting new models of care based around the person not the disease, and how computer simulation modeling is helping to support decision-making and dissemination of the concept.

Read the Whitepaper


Jacquie has posted some insightful articles on the SIMUL8 Healthcare blog related to her work in the UK's NHS.

Chronic disease - more than medicine

A signal of the success in tackling the health problems of the 21st century is the emergence of Long Term Conditions as the dominant problem for health and care systems worldwide...

Person-Centred Care - Fantasy or Fad?

Person-Centred Care seems to be the latest thing the NHS has suddenly started to get excited about, but is it real, is it of value, will it last or is it the latest fad?



The role of simulation in Long Term Conditions

The NHS program has used simulation from the outset to inform the understanding of how patients with multiple long term conditions use services as their conditions change, and the costs and resources likely to be required each year for a patient...

Fire as a health asset

A new partnership has been established between NHS England and the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS), to use their collective capabilities and resources more effectively to enhance the lives of older people and those with complex conditions...