The NHS will set out the next steps for how primary care networks will work with partners across newly formed integrated care systems.
NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard has asked Dr Claire Fuller, senior responsible officer of the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System, to set out how systems can accelerate implementation of the primary care, out of hospital care and prevention ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan and drive more integrated primary, community and social care services at a local level.
Fuller’s work will take a view on how services should develop, as well as setting up the most promising next steps in the short-term. She will look closely at how primary care networks can support integrated care systems by bringing partners together at a local or ‘Place’ level to address health inequalities and improve the health of the local population.
The 42 Integrated Care Systems across England bring together hospital, community and mental health trusts, GPs and other primary care services with local authorities and other care providers and the legislation proposes they become statutory organisations in April.
Pritchard said: “Partnership working has been at the heart of the remarkable NHS response to the pandemic and has helped us to deliver the most successful vaccination programme in our history – with millions of people protected from the virus at speed.
“The time to lay the groundwork for statutory Integrated Care Systems is now and it is vital that we ensure primary care is embedded at the heart of their development before they become statutory organisations in April as the proposed legislation sets out.
“I have seen first-hand how integrated care means better patient care – whether it be in Reigate where the local vaccination clinic is offering blood pressure checks to people being jabbed or in Bradford where they are teaming up with local schools to provide children with mental health support.
“I am delighted that Dr Claire Fuller will be driving this work forward, the examples seen in her local area show how partnership working particularly between GP practices and wider partners can deliver better experiences for patients.”
Fuller said: “I am delighted to have been asked to lead this work, and to use our experience locally to help systems across the country. As a GP, I know only too well the importance of supporting people in the widest sense. Patients who come to my surgery might present with a medical condition but so often this is exacerbated by other factors; financial concerns, housing issues, poor air quality and so on.
“Our primary care networks are perfectly placed within communities to bring together the right partners to tackle these ‘wider determinants of health’. This is about working collectively to support our most vulnerable citizens and to reduce the inequalities in health we know exist for many communities.”
