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The first Health and Social Care summit takes place in Plymouth

Plymouth’s first Health and Social Care summit took place at the Plymouth Guildhall on Wednesday 12 February.

The summit was attended by key health and social care professionals from across the city and the wider county of Devon and focused on how we can work together to strengthen the NHS and social care system and address gaps in provision in our city.

Councillor Kate Taylor, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care said: “This is such a great opportunity for everyone across the health and social care spectrum to come together to look at what we are currently doing in Plymouth to meet our challenges. It also gives us the chance to come and celebrate some fantastic examples of partnership working and thinking differently that is already being done for the future of health and social care provision in the city.”

It’s being held 10 years after the publication of the Marmot review into health inequalities in England. The review looked at available evidence on what leads to shorter life expectancy in different groups in society, and what are the things that need to change to improve that. It identified a number of key objectives, requiring action right across from national bodies down to local actions and priorities to focus on.

Dr Steve Harris, Strategic Clinical Lead for NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group said: “Recent initiatives are starting to transform primary care delivery and this summit hopes to identify further opportunities to improve the health and wellbeing of Plymouth residents.”

Attendees from a range of different organisations including Plymouth City Council, NHS Devon CCG, Livewell Southwest and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust held workshop sessions on the different health and social care challenges that Plymouth faces including; workforce shortage, an ageing population, deprivation, and increasing complexity of demand.