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Black Country Integrated Medicines Optimisation Committee

Background

Integrated care systems (ICSs) are bringing major changes in how health and care services are planned, paid for and delivered. The Black Country ICS has been setting up an Integrated Medicines Optimisation Committee (IMOC) to foster partnerships and optimise the use of medicines across the system.

The Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit has been supporting the establishment of the Committee and leading on aspects of its formation.

Action

We worked collaboratively with the ICS to create the foundation and governance structure of the Black Country IMOC:

  • We set up joint working groups to advise the ICS and agree the key principles underpinning the purpose and operation of the IMOC
  • In the next phase, we facilitated the production of a robust governance structure and of fundamental processes required to run the IMOC
  • Finally, we supported the IMOC with organisational sign off on the governance outputs and recruitment of suitable talent.

Impact

The IMOC will have a significant positive impact on the Black Country ICS’s capability to harmonise health partnerships and strategies and optimise system wide medicines and care pathways that will benefit patients across the system. Benefits include:

  • Establishing how the proposed new structures will work in practice, and how the partnering organisations will relate to one another
  • Finding new ways to work more closely with and alongside local communities as key partners in shaping services and improving population health and wellbeing
  • Prioritising the reduction of health inequalities
  • Developing clear lines of accountability and transparency around how and where decisions are made, while continuing to allow flexibility for locally led change
  • Continuing to align oversight and regulation more closely behind the work of systems, prioritising the cultural and behavioural changes needed to support this.

We continue to consult stakeholders in the development of the Black Country IMOC.

The formation of the Black Country IMOC is at the peak of NHS innovation in its unprecedented stage.
“Key deliverables included engagement, making sure every voice counts and listening to concerns and questions raised.
“Partnership with the MLCSU created scale working to provide solutions, service resilience and confidence when facing the challenges through this contract. The Black Country Integrated Care System innovation and collaborative working decisions in the phased approach of IMOC were made as closely as possible to the core principles and road map of the NHS Long Term Plan.”

Hemant Patel

Black Country Integrated Care Board, Associate Director for Medicines and Clinical Policy