The elephant in the room at the moment seems to be the question “what will general practice look like in the future – is it sustainable in its current form?” More and more practices are starting to work in different ways “at scale”. Whether that is through effective working within their primary care network, within a federation, super-practice models, or working closely with, or as part of, a trust – the vertical integration model.
The drivers towards “at scale” seem to be intensifying. Drivers include the use of a range of different health care professionals, employment options for these professionals, sharing staff across practices, and simply maintaining sufficient workforce numbers. Attracting GPs to partnerships seems to be increasingly difficult, and estates issues, often the need to “buy in” are not helping.
The landscape is starting to change as integrated care systems, place level working and provider collaboratives are developing. How primary care networks and all primary care contractor professions work in, and with, the new landscape remains to be seen.
In this edition of PCC Insight we are sharing articles that look into the challenges for general medical practice, consider the model of vertical integration, and explore the possible benefits. We also offer tips on what primary care estate strategies need to consider.
There is the bigger picture to consider, and it has been stated in many documents recently that the health service needs to shift from treating illness to supporting wellness. Crucial to this is how health care works with communities, and the potential to overlook some of the smaller but highly valued community organisations is ever present. Mike Etkind looks at where is the C in VCSE and makes a strong case to engage with the community organisations that can help to make this aspiration a reality.
