A new compendium of self-care case studies has been published by the PAGB, the consumer healthcare association, as part of Self-Care Week (18 to 24 November).

The compendium highlights best practice learnings from integrated care systems (ICSs) including advice to help design and implement self-care initiatives.

Michelle Riddalls, the Association’s chief executive, says: “The value of self-care is increasingly being recognised by national policy makers. In 2023, the government and the NHSE published a delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, including new programmes and initiatives aimed at supporting self-care.

“Self-care could save the resources of a significantly stretched NHS. Each year at least 25 million GP appointments and 5 million A&E appointments are used for self-treatable conditions costing the NHS £1.7 billion.

“Considerable progress has been made since the publication of the NHSE delivery plan in setting up new structures that enable increased access to self-care. But disparities in services exist at a local level. The ICS compendium with its case studies provides examples of how those gaps might be filled.”

ICS case studies

The compendium sets out four case studies from ICSs that are “paving the way in the support and promotion of self-care”.

• Community Pharmacy Cheshire and Wirral has facilitated access to self-care and OTC medicines by designing a self-care medicines toolkit which helps HCPs provide advice on treating self-care conditions and shows how patients can access the medicines they need from a community pharmacy without a prescription.
• In Cheshire and Merseyside, a children’s health app (CATCH – Common Approach to Children’s Health) has been designed the reduce the number of visits made by parents with children under five to A&E departments. The app supports parents by providing NHS recommended advice and an interactive map of health services across Cheshire.
• Dorset ICS commissioned ORCHA (Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps) to develop a formulary of digital health tools with a bespoke health app library. As a result of the success of this initiative six other ICSs have worked with ORCHA such that 5.6 million users now have access to health apps.
• Sussex ICS developed a programme to tackle digital exclusion in the form of small grants for organisations with projects to improve awareness of digital tools such as the NHS App and NHS 111. Nine months on from the launch of the grant, a total of 1,973 people have been supported through the programme.