A discussion paper published by Nesta, The Human Factor, says the NHS could cut around £7bn from its annual budget if clinicians and patients were able to redesign services for those with long term conditions including mental health complaints.
The writers, Laura Bunt and Michael Harris, say that when the NHS was set up in 1949 acute illnesses were the main problem. But now chronic conditions, suffered by more than 15m people, provide the biggest challenge.
Technology should play a central part of improving care for chronic illness, according to the report. It says that Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust's trial of a telephone based self-care management service, Birmingham OwnHealth, has generated progress on clinical indicators, is liked by patients and is expected to save £32m annually from 2012.
The report adds that web based support services, such the Patient Opinion system established by Sheffield GP Paul Hodgkin, are an effective way of passing patients' experiences to those running services. Patient Opinion has now become the national website for those receiving mental healthcare to provide feedback.
In the US, an online social network called PatientsLikeMe is helping patients with similar conditions share their experiences, in a similar fashion to the UK's Netmums site for parents. PatientsLikeMe also collects and collates data from its users for their benefit.
The report notes that health records controlled by the patient have been suggested as an alternative to the centralised model followed by the NHS, particularly in England through Connecting for Health. The Conservative Party is considering how it might introduce personal records for patients in England.
The Nesta report recommends that the NHS nurtures innovative projects, such as by setting up local incubation processes to establish such work. It also says that the public health project Change4Life should be refashioned as a community led programme.
