WIREDGOV

Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford has today launched the new website Making Prudent Healthcare Happen, which aims to ensure Wales remains at the forefront of this emerging global movement.  

The interactive website sets out the principles of prudent healthcare, with 15 chapters designed to stimulate debate about the impact they can have on the provision of health and social care across Wales.

Speaking at the Welsh Public Health conference as he launched the website, Professor Drakeford said:

“Over the past eight months a sustained discussion has taken place in Wales about prudent healthcare and the potential benefit for the Welsh NHS and its patients.

“That conversation has been enthusiastically embraced by people working within the health service and other public services in Wales and many examples of prudent healthcare in practice have come to the fore.

“But prudent healthcare has to be more than an idea and more than a set of principles. It has to change the way health services are used and provided. It has to make a real, practical difference to the millions of encounters which take place every year between the Welsh people and their health service.

“The interactive website, which was launched today, aims to capture some of the perspectives of those working in or using health and social care services about what prudent healthcare means to them and its potential for Wales.

“The examples being published online demonstrate how prudent healthcare is already happening in the work of the renal services team at Morriston Hospital, in Swansea, which put the co-production principle at the heart of their service redesign and has improved service quality and in the improvement of lymphedema services across Wales, which embodies the principles of prudent healthcare and is leading the way in Europe.

“Prudent healthcare will not happen by the Welsh Government acting alone.

“For the NHS to embrace prudent healthcare and for people across Wales to realise its benefits, leaders, managers, clinicians and the public need to think about what the principles mean for them and their interactions with health services and to act accordingly, the Making Prudent Healthcare Happen website will enable them to learn more and share their views.”

The website address is www.prudenthealthcare.org.uk. It will be updated between now and January to provide further perspectives and examples.

The website, which features videos with each of the authors, allows users to post comments about each of the chapters, also includes four case studies of services which embody prudent healthcare principles. It will be updated with more chapters in the coming months.

The website includes the following chapters:

• An NHS for future generations – why we are making prudent healthcare happen by Mark Drakeford, Minister for Health and Social Services
• International examples of successful prudent healthcare by Professor Sir Mansel Aylward, chair of the Bevan Commission 
• Better health for all our children - prudent healthcare for future generations by Dr Shantini Paranjothy, clinical senior lecturer, Cardiff University
• Co-producing prudent healthcare: putting people in the picture by Ruth Dineen, Co-production Wales
• Information technology – an essential tool in delivering prudent healthcare by Professor Ronan Lyons, clinical professor of public health, Swansea University
• Innovation – the driving force for prudent healthcare by Chris Martin, former chair Hywel Dda University Health Board and Ifan Evans, deputy director for innovation and technology, Welsh Government 
  The leadership challenge of prudent healthcare by Allison Williams, chief executive of Cwm Taf University Health Board (on behalf of NHS Wales health board and trust chief executives)
• Turning every day medical decisions into prudent practice by Dr Graham Shortland, medical director, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
• Introducing prudent principles in precision medicine by Dr Berwyn Clarke, Pandion Biotech Consulting Ltd
  Better health outcomes and safer care through prudent prescribing by Professor Phil Routledge, professor of clinical pharmacology, Cardiff University
• Focusing primary care services on people by applying prudent healthcare by Dr Sally Lewis, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
• The public health challenge of prudent healthcare by Patricia Riordan, director of health and healthcare improvement, Public Health Wales
• Establishing prudent principles across the public sector by Paul Matthews, chief executive, Monmouthshire County Council
• Unleashing the power of prudent healthcare through reablement, recovery and rehabilitation by Ruth Crowder, policy officer for Wales, College of Occupational Therapists
• Delivering excellence across the health and social care system through prudent healthcare by Sue Evans, chief officer, social care and housing, Torfaen County Borough Council.

The website also includes practical case studies to support the individual contributions, including:

• Delivering a prudent lymphoedema service;
• Renal services at night;
• Transforming adult social care;Virtual cardiology clinic.