ABSTRACT
Poor coordination of care across professional and organisational boundaries leads to inefficiency, wasteful use of resources and poor outcomes for people using healthcare services. Creating sustainable healthcare systems requires a focus on ‘integrated care’ that overcomes these issues and delivers a joined-up pathway of care for patients.
Drawing on recent examples from the English National Health Service, this chapter explores the links between sustainability and integration at three levels
Integration at clinical/service level.
Integration at provider level.
Integrated strategic planning.
It concludes by arguing that efforts to improve the environmental sustainability of the healthcare sector need to go hand-in-hand with efforts to deliver integrated care. While individual teams or organisations can take action to reduce the environmental impact of their own work, a truly sustainable approach will involve working in close partnership with others and looking beyond boundaries to improve the interfaces between different parts of the health and social care system. To do this, clinicians and managers need skills in system leadership to be able to engage with and influence the wider landscape that their service forms part of.
