New City Funding for Lung Disease – Putting Your Health in Your Hands

Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group is leading the way in patient choice as it launches an innovative scheme that gives people the opportunity to bid for pots of cash to fund ideas for fighting lung disease as part of a new £80,000 initiative.

People living in Leicester now have the opportunity to bid for pots of cash between £500 and £5,000 to fund their ideas for preventing and managing lung disease within their community. Successful bidders will have the opportunity to present their idea at a public voting event, with local people asked to vote for their favourite, before the winners are rolled out.

The specific health condition the CCG is tackling with public support is called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which can include a number of lung conditions including bronchitis and emphysema and in the majority of cases is caused by smoking. 

The project is the first of its kind to be run by a CCG in the East Midlands, and possibly even across the country, and if successful it plans to roll out the project in 2013/14 to tackle other long term health conditions including heart disease and diabetes.

The CCG is asking people to send in their bids and ideas which will need to be submitted by Monday February 4, 2013. There will then be a bid analysis process involving representatives from across health, community and voluntary sector services. The voting event will be held on Saturday March 2, 2013 at the Peepul Centre, Orchardson Avenue, Leicester LE4 6DP and successful bidders will be announced on the day.

For example, people might want to bid for a pot of cash so they can hire a room for an exercise class, to help boost lung capacity for former smokers or to bring in specialist advice to help people quit smoking in their area of the city.

Professor Azhar Farooqi, GP and chair of Leicester City CCG, said: “This is a really exciting project which we hope will reach to the very heart of the diverse communities in Leicester as well as bring people together. We want as many groups as possible to come forward and submit their ideas, bid for pots of money and manage the project themselves so they really see the benefit of what they are doing. 

“Residents are often best placed to know what their area needs. This can bring greater efficiencies and develop a sense of shared responsibility between the service providers and the residents, for the area. By involving local people in deciding what public services they need and want in their local area, services can be more responsive and targeted to local demand. One of our strategic values is to ensure we listen and value the views of local people and this project demonstrates just how committed we are to doing this.

“If we can get people involved in providing preventive interventions or management projects for lung disease in the city it will hopefully reduce the amount of people who become ill and need hospital treatment. It will give them the confidence that with support from these local projects and the support of their GP where appropriate, they can manage their own care effectively.”

The city has been divided into three areas, East, South and West, based on parliamentary constituencies, and each area will be given £20,000 to choose services which will help to prevent people from developing lung disease or to help those who are already living with the condition. There will also be £20,000 available for city-wide schemes, making £80,000 in total. This is on top of existing CCG schemes to prevent or treat lung disease such as the new Telehealth and spirometer tests.

To receive funding for a local project, groups need to apply by filling in an application form. The application will be considered by a panel and if the application is successful they will be invited to the voting event in March where members of the public vote for their favourite projects. Groups that apply must be constituted or have terms of reference for their bid to be considered.

For more information or if you require an application form please go online at www.health-in-your-hands.co.uk or call a member of the communications and engagement team on 0116 295 1123 or 0116 295 4159. You can find more information on lung disease at www.blf.org.uk.

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