Major healthcare plans for Lincolnshire submitted to NHS for approval

However it will not be for a number of weeks until the extent of these plans are revealed to the public.

Lincolnshire Health and Care (LHAC) submitted what is known as a draft Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) which aims to ‘improve quality and care and finances’.

Officials have previously warned that the county’s health services face a £300 million deficit by 2021 if no action is taken.

LHAC says the STP builds on, and includes, the work undertaken through its own review which has developed proposals for a new health and care model.

Chief Officer for South West Lincolnshire CCG and lead for Lincolnshire STP Allan Kitt: “We always expected that our plan would need to be developed through several versions even before we share the key elements with the public.

“We have done further work on how we make decisions across organisations, being clearer about how we need to develop new roles and tackle the staff shortages we face and being clearer about how we make sure we manage the financial resources we have to fund healthcare effectively.

“We believe our plan does show how we will all go on a journey to start to deliver more modern care, that is closer to home and helps people stay well rather than wait until they become ill to act.

“The plan will continue to evolve as we get more feedback, both from the submission on Friday but more importantly from the public as we start to build on the past three years dialogue and move from what needs to change to making the improvements a reality.

“To date we believe the people of Lincolnshire appreciate that though change may be difficult we really do need to change if we are to do the best for our population.”

Some elements of the plan, such as the care portal and clinical assessment service have been implemented, while other initiatives will look to ‘be more efficient, make best use of people, estates and technology, and improve productivity across our workforce’.

The STP is underpinned by LHAC’s vision for healthcare which looks to deliver ‘a radically different model of care’.

LHAC says it is committed to publishing the STP to the public in full, ‘likely in the next six weeks’.

It says no final decisions over services will be made until the public have had a chance to express their views.