Spreading self-management support: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The trust has worked closely with local GP practices, changing services to help people plan their lives and health care. They have also supported self-management courses for patients with diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and training in self-management support for staff across long-term care.

Working with patients and other organisations, the trust is continuing to deliver and support training for patients and clinicians, and to develop services for patients with COPD, stroke, diabetes and heart disease, spanning tertiary, secondary and primary care. They are:

• integrating self-management support into community pulmonary rehabilitation, and driving evaluation of new service models
• testing new person-centred commissioning models, as often used in social care.

These new innovations are being rigorously assessed to see if patients benefit from the novel approaches being taken.

The trust plans to build on what it has learnt from Co-creating Health by maximising opportunities to collaborate with other programme sites. It will also contribute to the Health Foundation’s self-management support resource centre, as well as to learning events and plans to deliver a national conference on self management support.

The trust is also collaborating with recognised expert researchers in the field of self management support to ensure the work performed is published for the benefit of others.