A picture of health: determining the core population served by an urban NHS hospital trust and understanding the key health needs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

NHS hospitals do not have clearly defined geographic populations to whom they provide care, with patients able to attend any hospital. Identifying a core population for a hospital trust, particularly those in urban areas where there are multiple providers and high population churn, is essential to understanding local key health needs especially given the move to integrated care systems. This can enable effective planning and delivery of preventive interventions and community engagement, rather than simply treating those presenting to services. In this article we describe a practical method for identifying a hospital's catchment population based on where potential patients are most likely to reside, and describe that population's size, demographic and social profile, and

SUBMITTER: Beaney T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8753015 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature