The University of Brighton is working in partnership with Innotech to deliver bespoke courses for senior health professionals, policy makers and service managers.

Our 'Introduction to community health care in the UK' was set up in 2008 in response to requests from health managers in the Minhang district of Shanghai who wanted to find out about how health services are delivered in the NHS. This was triggered by health care reforms in China and particular interest in how a general practice service is organised.

The course is designed to enable participants to see what community health care in the UK looks like in practice. Delegates have valued the opportunity to ask who does what, find out about how clinical teams operate and explore the patient's experience, all things which are difficult to obtain by simply reading documents about the UK health service.

Following the course, Minhang district has begun implementing a GP service and is seen as a beacon of innovative health service delivery in Shanghai.

Each course is different and the programme evolves in response to the specific questions which each delegation brings. We use a mix of classroom sessions and workshops with site visits to local health facilities. Most recently, delegates have been concerned with how GPs can manage the workload which an ageing population with chronic life-long conditions brings and are particularly interested in the topic of 'skill mix'. We have shaped the course programme to include exposure to a variety of specialist nurses roles since nursing is not differentiated in China.

The broad aims of the course are to:

• Introduce concepts underpinning primary care in England and current policy drivers.
• Provide an overview of community care, public health and health promotion initiatives.
• Share appropriate health management and leadership principles to ensure the implementation of standards/initiatives.
• Provide an overview of professional roles in the community setting.
• Ensure that each delegate has a bespoke learning plan that will structure their engagement with the teaching faculty and local health care site visits, and contribute to their professional development.

Further information

If you have an enquiry about this course please contact Susannah Davidson, Business Development Manager, on +44 (0)1273 644066 or S.L.Davidson@brighton.ac.uk.