The NHS Confederation and its European Office coordinated a study visit to the Valencia region in Spain on 24 and 25 March 2011 to understand and learn from their innovative approach to delivering low cost integrated healthcare through public-private partnership.
Why Valencia?
The Alzira model was designed in 1999 as a pioneering approach to using private capital to finance hospital services and further adapted in 2003. By giving responsibility for a population's full healthcare provision to a private provider this approach enabled the regional government of Valencia to provide free and universal integrated healthcare to a designated region and within budget. Over 20 per cent of the population of the Valencia region are now covered by similar contracts.
Why now?
In the current financial climate senior health managers and leading policy experts are looking for innovative, low cost approaches to integrated healthcare. Experiences from across Europe can help provide new answers to these common challenges. This model in particular might be a precursor to how some parts of the NHS respond to the current reforms, pressures on hospitals and of course QIPP. It would also be of interest for health communities for whom there are problems of hospital viability.
Who attended?
The study visit was open to senior healthcare professionals, managers and policy experts from across Europe, ensuring a mixture of roles, interests and experiences. The final delegation consisted of 28 participants from ten different countries.
What did participants experience?
The programme lasted for two days and was designed by leading UK and European policy experts including Nigel Edwards, Acting Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, Stephen Wright, Executive Director of ECHAA, and Antonio Duran from Tecnicas de Salud, the leading Spanish healthcare industry consultancy. Nigel lead the visit.
The visit included site visits to two hospitals and heard from senior representatives of regional government, clinical and managerial employees, patients, and policy leads.
How much did this cost?
The cost to participate in the study visit was EUR 250, or £210. Travel and one night's accommodation was paid by the participants themselves.
More information
For more information and to see the final programme please see the study visit pack or contact Michael.wood@nhsconfed.org.
A report has been produced summarising the visit and examining whether the model could be replicated in the English NHS. Download the report here.