UK’s Largest Health Conference: Health Plus Care Event – Excel London, 2017

Radfield Home Care’s Director, Dr Hannah MacKechnie has again attended the Health+Care show at ExCel London exhibition centre. Here are her thoughts and takeaways on a busy couple of days at the show.

I was really looking forward to getting to the Health+Care show and seeing what great work is going on in our UK sector. It is a tremendous forum bringing together the main innovators in both the health and social care sectors primarily because I think it helps to drive forward the agenda for greater integration and change.

With two specialist theatres dedicated to domiciliary care and live-in care there was a wide range of knowledge shared about the best ways to provide high-quality care at home and being able to adapt this care to fit individual’s needs, as their health changes. With a focus on being able to supply an increasing range of services into people’s own homes here in the UK there is now much greater opportunity for people to remain living at home with far greater care and health needs – indeed sometimes completely preventing the need for hospital admission at all.

How Can We Become Involved in Primary Care Homes? – Vicky Waring – Home Instead

Vicky Waring from Home Instead Senior Care Retford and Gainsborough was the first speaker who talked about using private domiciliary services to fit into the primary care home model which was initially trialled in 15 areas of the UK and now expanded to over 160 areas. It was a very interesting talk about the benefits of primary health services working more closely with the private sector, in order to forge ahead with these new models of care, that will ultimately benefit client care.

Interestingly, when answering questions at the end of the session she did state that Home Instead to date have not yet managed to undertake any primary care home integration work.

“We want companionship based care to become the norm”

– hearing from @Homeinsteaduk Vicky Waring @HealthPlusCare pic.twitter.com/k3xPC50Md7

— Home Instead UK (@Homeinsteaduk) June 28, 2017

Developing an Outstanding Care Company – Tushar & Mehul Shah – Bluebird Care

In this session, Tushar Shah and Mehul Shah shared their journey in developing an “Outstanding” care company based on the following key areas:

• People – find and invest in the best people in your area and in the profession.
• Strategy – a plan of how to get there. What makes your organisation different. Communicate the strategy with everyone in the business so they can all put into it.
• Execution – making sure people are sticking to the plan. Let people own their areas.
• Cash – you need decent profit margins to be able to invest in being really good.

An interesting talk from two hands-on dynamic and entrepreneurial business owners of multiple Bluebird Care franchises in Berkshire area on their recent “outstanding” rating from CQC.

A very enjoyable and inspiring session which as well as giving their take on why they felt they received this rating, they also discussed the journey and the ups and downs along the way, and the lessons they have learned over 10 years.

“It took 10 years to get to outstanding and lots of ups and downs along the way. We nearly went broke in the early days and then with help of a business coach turned the business around.”

‘Culture eats process for breakfast every day’.

Culture is how you engage with people to achieve your outcome – not just meeting the outcome. The aim of their business is to make a difference not just to staff and clients but also to their community.

Their overall message was that there is very little difference between being a “good” rated provider and an “outstanding” rated provider – it is the small things that when done every day and embedded into the culture of the organisation that make the difference and most importantly it is how your care staff interact with clients and involve them in decision making and choice.

Increasing Technology Providers in Health and Social Care

One of the things that was very apparent in 2017 is the sheer number of technology solutions available for the health and social care sectors. This year, one third of the show’s floor plan was made up of digital healthcare solutions, with multiple theatres running seminars throughout the day. This just highlights how the wave of technology has really hit the health and social care sectors – traditionally rather a slow adopter of new ways of working…but things are certainly changing quickly which is pleasing to witness and see demonstrated.

Its 2017, Efficiency & Transparency from Technology in Care

Paul Barry from Everylife technologies spoke about the PASSsystem and how it can help domiciliary care organisations to streamline their ways of working and drive efficiencies. This of course was not news to me as we were very early adopters of the PASS system into our branches and have seen the benefits to not only our management teams but also to our carers, clients and families from the transparency that the system provides.

Takeaways from Health+Care 2017

It’s been a busy couple of days talking to lots of people and keeping up to date with changes in the social care sector, but it is so refreshing to be involved in a forum where people from a diverse range of organisations and backgrounds are all pulling together to improve the state of health and care delivery in our United Kingdom.’

Thank you to the organisers and speakers for such an enjoyable and worthwhile industry event.

Follow the event coverage on Twitter using the hashtag: #healthpluscare Or @healthpluscare
The event organisers: www.healthpluscare.co.uk.