THE £130m shake-up of Southampton’s health and care system could be a “big step forward” for thousands of elderly and vulnerable residents, according to a city watchdog.

The chairman of Healthwatch Southampton says Better Care could lead to less people “falling through the gaps” of services, but the head of the city’s pensioner forum says he is sceptical the proposals will work.

The plans, revealed by the Daily Echo yesterday, will see new local health and care teams work together in six new “clusters” representing different areas of the city.

While workers from fields such as health, housing and therapy will not work under the same roof, they will co-ordinate in a way that has not happened before.

Each “cluster” will have staff acting as a first point of contact for residents, who will then be able to co-ordinate their care between different NHS, council, care and voluntary sector teams.

The plans, recently approved by Government ministers, will see the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and city council have joint control of an annual budget of £132m of Government funds.

Elderly residents will be targeted, and the scheme will be rolled out to some of the 86,000 people in the city classed as having long-term health and mental health issues.

It is hoped it could relieve pressure on local hospitals by ensuring residents are able to get non-emergency help and treatment as close to their own home as possible.

The funding will be spent delivering a major reorganisation of how local health and care teams work together and new initiatives such as offering new support and advice to carers.

It will also cover existing staff, overheads and other costs currently funded in the city by the NHS.

Final plans are still being drawn up, but Better Care Southampton will start to take effect from next April onwards.

Speaking about the plans, Healthwatch Southampton chairman Harry Dymond said: “This could be a big step forward, but obviously the devil is in the detail and at Healthwatch we are working hard to make sure the public are involved in the discussions.

“If it’s successful in the way it’s intended to work then I think it will have the biggest impact on the older generation of people with longer term conditions.

“They will have a single point of access, rather than what currently happens, which is that people fall between the gaps of different services, and hopefully, if this works properly, they will have a single person they can refer to.”

But Robbie Robinson, chairman of the Southampton Pensioner’s Forum, said: “We need to see the needs of elderly people who are sent out of hospitals with conditions such as dementia, cared for properly.

“It’s supposed to give people a better standard of care all over the city, but I don’t think it’s going to work.

“I can’t see the different teams working together.”

The six new clusters
Cluster 1: Redbridge, Shirley, Millbrook and Freemantle
Cluster 2: Coxford and Lordshill
Cluster 3: Bassett, Swaythling, Portswood and St Denys
Cluster 4: City centre and Bevois
Cluster 5: Peartree, Sholing, Weston and Woolston
Cluster 6: Bitterne, Bitterne Park, Thornhill and Harefield