Yearly Archives: 2016

One Care (BNSSG) Ltd – six months on

We have put together this video to share with our practice shareholders six months on from 21 June 2016; the day that we asked the practices in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, to vote on whether or not you wanted One Care to become your GP organisation.

The video contains an update on a number of areas including: recent confirmation of new funding streams, general practice involvement with the Sustainability and Transformation Plan, the launch of the new company and plans for 2017.

We hope you find it informative and that it demonstrates the progress the organisation has made over the last six months.

Please contact us if you have any questions, feedback or would like to discuss anything further.

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Practices vote in support of One Care

We are delighted to announce that a significant majority of practices, over 90%, voted in favour of One Care becoming the GP consortium for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire at yesterday’s general meeting.

Practices confirmed their support of plans for One Care to be the single consortium, representing General Practices, as set out in the One Care manifesto and business plan. The new organisation will be owned and driven by General Practices as its shareholders, with an LMC representative on the Board ensuring the interests of all practices are managed appropriately, equitably and fairly.

We can now focus on the future with confidence and continue to fully support the delivery of collaborative, innovative and sustainable primary care at scale.

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Practices set to decide the future of One Care

Practices across BNSSG will come together for an extraordinary meeting of One Care on 21st June. We hope to receive a mandate for One Care to become the voice of GP practices across the region.

To ensure that all practices have all the information they need to be able to vote with confidence , please find below various helpful documents and information:

If you have questions or comments ahead of 21st June, we have set up a Survey Monkey. Alternatively, please ring us at the One Care programme office on 0117 941 0900.

If you haven’t yet done so, please register to attend on 21st June, or submit your postal vote. Please remember, you can only submit one vote per practice.

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Mental health nurse specialists in GP practices

A further five mental health nurse specialists have joined practices across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) as part of One Care Consortium’s plans to pilot accessible, timely and appropriate mental health services to patients.

The objectives of the pilot, which will not duplicate existing mental health services, are twofold:

  • To demonstrate that it is possible to move demand away from traditional face-to-face GP consultations to a mental health nurse specialist for people with low mood, anxiety and depression
  • To improve patient care through accessible, appropriate and more timely mental health input

The pilot began in April 2016, and will bring important benefits to patients and practices. The nurses are intended to become integrated members of the practice team(s) to ensure continuity of care for all patients accessing the service and to reduce pressure on secondary care services.

Each nurse specialist will join one of the following practices or practice collectives

  • Winscombe and Banwell Family Practice
  • Fallodon Way Medical Centre, Westbury-on-Trym Primary Care Centre, Monks Park and Greenway Community Practice collectively
  • Mendip Vale Medical Practice
  • Locality Health Centre, Tudor Lodge Surgery and Longton Grove Surgery collectively

The service is set to run across One Care Consortium practices in each CCG area for 12 months and is available to patients aged 18 and over, who are registered with one of the practices involved.

This latest wave, which coincides with National Mental Health Week (w/c 16 May), brings the total number of mental health nurse specialists to nine. Wave three, which is set to commence in June, will see four more nurse specialists embedded in practices across BNSSG.

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The future of general practice

Working with NHS England, the Primary Care Foundation has just completed four sessions for practices across Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire. These sessions explored:

  • What One Care has achieved so far
  • The successes and frustrations with the programme
  • The future of general practice
  • The opportunities for working together
  • An option for supporting practices to work at scale

There was also an excellent video from Robert Varnam, Head of General Practice Development at NHS England, setting out his views of the current challenges and opportunities for general practice. Robert’s video can be found here

Click here to download the slides from the day

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Physios in surgeries ‘can save GPs time and money’

GPs could spend longer with their patients if physiotherapists worked with them at their surgeries, says the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

If patients with back pain, for example, were directed to a physio instead of a GP, an extra five minutes could be spent with other patients. Musculo-skeletal conditions are thought to make up as much as 30% of all GP appointments.

Physiotherapists say that if they could be the first point of contact for patients with these conditions, GPs could dedicate more time to people with other conditions.

Physios are already working in a small number of GP surgeries in England.

During a three-month pilot in West Cheshire, more than 700 patients who would otherwise have seen a GP, were seen by a physiotherapist.

The arrangement is now in place in 36 GP practices in the area. GPs’ leaders welcomed the initiative but said staff would have to be trained to the highest standards.

Read the full article here > 

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Upcoming changes to Patient Facing Services

As you may be aware, the GMS and PMS contract agreements 2015/16 include the requirement for GP practices to offer patients access to detailed coded data in their GP records. This regulation takes effect from 31 March 2016.

It involves configuration of practices’ EMIS systems and putting into place polices and processes to comply with this requirement. A group has been created on Artemis, the One Care Intranet called Patient Facing Services (Online Access). In anticipation of the deadline, One Care will be updating the group with links to useful information, including the latest guidance available on this issue.

Further to these resources, practices can also request EMIS support to run a specific ‘Sam Earl’ report, which will provide practices with current numbers of patients using Patient Access and which areas of the service they use.

Please note that this is a very popular report and there may be a short delay in receiving it.

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One Care Consortium AGM

AGM sets the stage for One Care’s next phase

On December 8th, the health service community of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset  (BNSSG) were invited to attend the innagural AGM of the One Care PCMF programme. Despite traffic light malfunctions bringing Bristol to a standstill, the evening was well attended with presentations sparking interesting questions, and discussions carrying on until late around the information marketplace.

“It was a very good evening, with interesting and like-minded people all talking passionately about One Care, what’s happening now, and it’s future.” – Pragnya Gill, Patient Reference Group member

Alongside presentations from the Chair on future work streams and the Programme Director summarising work to date, two films were shown to give an overview of the programme so far, and the next phase of delivery:

Video: Wave One of the Programme

Video: Wave Two of the Programme

The AGM was also an opportunity for the then Programme Director, Helen England, to welcome Ruth Taylor to the role, taking the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund (PCMF) programme forward, into 2016 and beyond.

For further information on how One Care Consortium is supporting primary care across BNSSG, please contact us.

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