With people living longer, we have a rapidly ageing population - many of whom are living with chronic health conditions. And while people are living longer, they are not necessarily remaining healthy in those extra years. Across the world, changing lifestyles are leading to an epidemic in diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. NHS patients nowadays are increasingly likely to have complex health needs that span a variety of disciplines and services, and the particular challenge we face is the number of people with complex conditions turning up at A and E.

At the same time, NHS services are too often fragmented. Unfortunately many patients with long term conditions have to negotiate a bewildering array of doctors, nurses and care providers and this leads to delays in accessing the treatments that are needed, and poor decision making. Patients are left feeling let down and frustrated. Often, people end up in A&E after a crisis admission - putting strain on frontline services, and adding to spiralling costs in the NHS. If we stick to the same old approach, the NHS could in future buckle under the pressure.

The Health Service must adapt in innovative ways to accommodate evolving, and increasingly complex, patient needs. Today's announcement of 10 "integration pioneers" across the UK marks a revolutionary change in the way that health services are provided, with a new emphasis on joined-up case management, and decision-making that always looks at the whole picture in supporting a patient.

Many local service providers have already set a precedent of what can be achieved by integrating services; North Elmham Medical Practice in Dereham, in my own county of Norfolk, for example, has a team of mental health nurses, district nurses, GPs and County Council social workers who meet regularly to review patient care and treatment plans. This means people get more joined up care, and don't fall through the cracks in the system.

The Torbay Care Trust case is another great example of local health professionals working together to create an integrated service with very encouraging results. The Trust introduced measures such as an integrated information system, making background information on a patient easily accessible to employees and saving hours of valuable time. A single point of contact for patients means they don't have to repeat their story to dozens of separate clinicians. Today, reduced waiting times, lower numbers of occupied beds and a marked decrease in crisis admissions clearly demonstrate the benefits of the Torbay Care Trust's approach.

With today's announcement I am encouraging applications for the Government's new Pioneer Sites Programme. The Programme will provide support for ten sites across the country working to explore how they can integrate their services, to make sure that organisations always work together to provide the best possible care for patients. The aim is to establish pioneers that will champion their ideas across the NHS to provide the inspiration for large-scale change. I want to move the NHS away from top-down re-organisation, and instead encourage local services to find sensible ways of working together to support their patients.

I believe that working towards a more integrated health service will stop people falling through the gaps in the system; it will help to develop a more joined up, holistic approach to patient care that protects our NHS for the future.

* Norman Lamb MP is Liberal Democrat Minister of State at the Department of Health