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Supporting people with multiple health conditions

Our pledge: We will support people with multiple health conditions to be part of a team with health and care professionals working compassionately to improve their health and wellbeing.


High-quality primary care: Primary care (GP practices and wider community teams) is, and will remain, the bedrock of the NHS. We know it is still too difficult for people to get an appointment to see their GP and primary care team and we must do all we can to support people and general practice.

We want general practice to offer a consistently high-quality service to everyone in Kent and Medway, delivered by a skilled multi-disciplinary team working in partnership with other health and care services to maximise benefits for our population.

NHS Kent and Medway ICB has recently taken over responsibility for commissioning pharmacy, optometry and dentist services.

We will make sure all pharmacies are supporting people with healthcare, self-care, signposting and healthy living advice. We will improve and increase access to dentist services. We will also improve people’s access to NHS sight tests and other locally commissioned eye health services, focussing on improving access for everyone.



Patient empowerment and multi-disciplinary teams. People with multiple health conditions are best served by teams made up of different specialists. The patient is looked after as a person rather than having different appointments for different health problems. Specialists can be brought together for common conditions, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, respiratory disease and frailty.

Complex care teams and multi-disciplinary teams, working with primary care and social care, will co-ordinate identified groups of people and respond their needs and opportunities at a local level. Shared decision-making will empower our communities to make informed choices about how, when and where they receive care.

This will use personal health budgets and social prescribing, where appropriate, alongside patient-centred services, such as complex care teams encompassing physical, mental health and social care disciplines, enabled by the Better Care Fund.


Support for carers: We recognise the important role of formal and informal carers in a person’s care team. There are many different types of carers and they come from all walks of life, ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. However, they have one thing in common; their role directly benefits the people they look after and society, as a whole, so we must recognise their needs and support them too.

Young carers have particular needs. We will continue to work together to make sure there is good understanding across all services that work with children about the impacts of being a young carer, how to identify ‘hidden carers’ and how to put support in place for them, including working with VCSE organisations, which provide vital support for carers of all ages.


We asked people to share their views between February and August 2023. We have now closed our ideas boards. Thank you for your contributions!

Our pledge: We will support people with multiple health conditions to be part of a team with health and care professionals working compassionately to improve their health and wellbeing.


High-quality primary care: Primary care (GP practices and wider community teams) is, and will remain, the bedrock of the NHS. We know it is still too difficult for people to get an appointment to see their GP and primary care team and we must do all we can to support people and general practice.

We want general practice to offer a consistently high-quality service to everyone in Kent and Medway, delivered by a skilled multi-disciplinary team working in partnership with other health and care services to maximise benefits for our population.

NHS Kent and Medway ICB has recently taken over responsibility for commissioning pharmacy, optometry and dentist services.

We will make sure all pharmacies are supporting people with healthcare, self-care, signposting and healthy living advice. We will improve and increase access to dentist services. We will also improve people’s access to NHS sight tests and other locally commissioned eye health services, focussing on improving access for everyone.



Patient empowerment and multi-disciplinary teams. People with multiple health conditions are best served by teams made up of different specialists. The patient is looked after as a person rather than having different appointments for different health problems. Specialists can be brought together for common conditions, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, respiratory disease and frailty.

Complex care teams and multi-disciplinary teams, working with primary care and social care, will co-ordinate identified groups of people and respond their needs and opportunities at a local level. Shared decision-making will empower our communities to make informed choices about how, when and where they receive care.

This will use personal health budgets and social prescribing, where appropriate, alongside patient-centred services, such as complex care teams encompassing physical, mental health and social care disciplines, enabled by the Better Care Fund.


Support for carers: We recognise the important role of formal and informal carers in a person’s care team. There are many different types of carers and they come from all walks of life, ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. However, they have one thing in common; their role directly benefits the people they look after and society, as a whole, so we must recognise their needs and support them too.

Young carers have particular needs. We will continue to work together to make sure there is good understanding across all services that work with children about the impacts of being a young carer, how to identify ‘hidden carers’ and how to put support in place for them, including working with VCSE organisations, which provide vital support for carers of all ages.


We asked people to share their views between February and August 2023. We have now closed our ideas boards. Thank you for your contributions!