PEOPLE who suffer from long-term health conditions could benefit from a programme designed to reduce the number of admissions to hospitals.

Hambleton and Richmondshire Primary Care Trust has been chosen as one of 15 trusts nationally to take part in the first wave of the Accelerated Development Programme.

The programme aims to develop the role of primary and intermediate care teams to improve the management of chronic illness and reduce admissions to acute hospitals.

It is led by the Changing Workforce team, which is part of the NHS Modernisation Agency, and hopes to reform how patients needing emergency treatment are dealt with and improve patients' experiences of the healthcare system.

Val Stangoe, modernisation manager of the trust's professional executive committee, said: "If we can manage a patient's condition more effectively we could ultimately avoid future admissions to hospital.

"Often, when a patient's condition deteriorates, it is because they don't recognise the triggers or they do nothing about them.

"With regular reviews of medication, we can evaluate patients' care and help them to recognise the symptoms and how to deal with them."

The ten-month programme will involve the health and social care community, carers and the voluntary sector.

It hopes to reduce the number of contacts with different members of staff and organisations.

Kirsty Kitching, the trust's development manager, said: "Our aim is to take a more holistic approach, supporting the person and their needs, rather than managing their individual chronic disease in isolation.

"Initially, we will be looking at older people with heart failure, respiratory and neurological problems."

The programme should help fulfil the trust's objective of enabling patients to be treated as close to their home as possible, cutting down unnecessary or avoidable admissions to hospitals, and helping to retain independence for patients.

Andrew Donald, of the National Primary and Care Trust Development Programme, said: "Older people and those with long-term chronic disease suffer particularly where services are fragmented.

"The aim is to provide alternatives to hospitalisation by building capacity and developing services in primary and community settings."