Proactive Care Team offers support for complex conditions in Keighley

Bradford District Care Trust’s award-winning Proactive Care team (PACT) has expanded into the central ward of Keighley. The team offers holistic short-term support for adults with long-term, complex health problems. This service is now available for patients over 18 who are registered with Farfield Surgery, Holycroft Surgery, Kilmeny Group Medical Practice and Ling House Medical Centre.

The multi-disciplinary PACT (pictured right)  brings together 11 different professional services in one team – physiotherapy, mental health, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, specialist dementia care Admiral nurses, palliative care nurses, health care assistants and advanced practitioners, a dietician, pharmacy technician and personal support navigator.

The team works together with GPs, primary and secondary care, local authority social services, Dementia UK and the voluntary care sector to address unmet needs and reduce duplication between services.

PACT team leader Amanda Whitley explains: “Our team helps individuals to live well and manage their healthcare conditions effectively, so they can avoid unnecessary GP appointments, unplanned hospital admissions or Accident and Emergency (A&E) visits.

“Our approach is anticipatory, preventative and acknowledges the interrelationship of mental and physical health. We encourage self-referrals as well as proactively seeking out patients who are over or underusing other health services.

“Once we have accepted a referral, we carry out one holistic, patient-centred assessment and then create a tailored and coordinated healthcare plan for each individual, delivered by a mix of professionals in one community team.”

This way of working has proved efficient and effective in central Bradford, where PACT was initially established in 2020 as one of the Reducing Inequalities in Communities projects aimed at targeting health inequalities in the city’s most deprived areas, where healthy life expectancy is significantly lower.

In recognition of its work in Bradford, the PACT won The Excellence in Primary Care and Community Award at last year’s NHS Parliamentary Awards (pictured in London with Bradford West MP Naz Shah who nominated the team). In 2023, it won Team of the Year for delivering frontline services at Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership’s Celebrate as One Awards and was a finalist in the HRH The Prince of Wales Award for Integrated Approaches to Care category at the Nursing Times Awards.

Amanda said: “We’re so pleased we’ve been able to expand so that people in Keighley with the greatest need can benefit from the PACT service.”