Cheshire East are in the process of developing a SMART team bringing together health and social care services in Wilmslow.
GPs in Wilmslow will be the first point of contact for many patients who need holistic care, as part of a shake-up to combine health and social care services.
In the future doctors will refer patients to a SMART team, giving patients the benefit of a wide-range of health professional services under the same roof.
Cheshire East Council has developed SMART teams (Skilled Multi-Agency Response Teams) in Congleton and Macclesfield and a team is currently being developed in Wilmslow.
The team will be made up of social care workers, occupational therapists, assistive technology staff, district nurses and community matrons.
An example of how SMART teams can improve patient care is if a district nurse visits an elderly person and identifies any social care concerns, then the nurse can inform the social care worker operating within the same team. Before SMART teams existed, the nurse would have made several calls to different teams to identify the appropriate social care worker, so costing time, effort and a delay in patient care.
The first SMART team in Cheshire East opened up in Congleton at Riverside in late summer. The second SMART team was launched recently in Macclesfield's Blue Zone development and also features intermediate care.
Councillor Roland Domleo, Cabinet member with responsibility for adult services, said: "We all support the government's aim to integrate health care and social care and this is a positive step on that journey.
"Health and social care services have existed in isolation, so bringing these services together under the same roof makes a lot of sense.
"Now social care workers and district nurses can make patient visits together to make sure they receive a holistic approach to their care.
"If the patient needs to be referred back to their GP then the district nurses or community matrons can do this quite easily.
"Before the SMART teams came into existence, the processes for referrals was cumbersome and quite simply the communication and joined-up working just wasn't there.
"Now patients can avoid falling into ill-health and ultimately being admitted into hospital by having a network of professionals linked to them who can spot the signs early."
Photo caption: One of the SMART teams with (centre) Councillor Roland Domleo, Cabinet member for adult services, and Chief Executive of Cheshire East Council, Erika Wenzel.
