Welcome to the latest edition of PCC Insight, as the NHS implements its 10 Year Health Plan, a fundamental transformation is underway bringing care closer to people’s homes, a focus on population health, personalised care, and value-based outcomes.
Primary care services are the foundation for neighbourhoods. Integrated care boards need to become strategic commissioners but must improve their skills, knowledge, and capability to commission primary care. Neighbourhood health centres need developing – either using existing or new estate. While these practicalities happen there is a need to shift hearts and minds, working together collaboratively, professionals, patients and the public, so that communities are empowered to support their local neighbourhoods, and when designing care “what matters to me” is at the heart of decision making.
PCC’s work in the last month is making this a reality. We have always specialised in technical expert support, and our workshop programme included sessions looking at outcomes and value, population health for personalised care and a session on neighbourhoods considering the foundations that are needed. In addition, we continue to offer our full range of primary care commissioning workshops across all contractor groups.
In this edition of PCC Insight, we share some of the key messages from our workshops – particularly around value-based outcomes and population health. We share examples from Wales where we have worked for numerous years to help implement the Primary Care Model for Wales, supporting cluster development, and crucially enabling people to come together to co-design actions to improve care close to home.
PCC’s chair, Professor David Colin-Thomé, looks at the involvement of patients and the public, and questions if list based general practice is under threat. Other articles include looking at the detail around GP premises, considering leases and how to manage departing partners with ownership in freehold premises. Over the autumn we will continue to help commissioners and providers realise the potential of neighbourhoods through our expert support to local areas, and our numerous workshops.
We urge local areas to get ahead of the curve – our three top recommended actions to get the foundations in place for neighbourhood health are:
- Update PCN estate strategies for neighbourhoods – identifying all public sector space, undertaking space utilisation reviews to underpin business cases for premises investment, work with local authorities to look at opportunities for S106 and CIL funding
- Bring people together across neighbourhoods using an action learning approach to start to agree and implement early wins
- Ensure you have strong foundations – primary care (all professions) contracted correctly and appropriately, contracts up to date and know what is commissioned via local agreements (LES, APMS), and what all professions can deliver so that the potential to shift services closer to peoples’ homes is fully understood.
PCC can help with all these areas.
Enjoy this edition of PCC Insight, and we look forward to working with you to make neighbourhood health a success. Contact enquiries@pcc-cic.org.uk.
