It’s two years to the day since the first Covid-19 vaccination was administered by a Primary Care Network (PCN) in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG).

In that time, general practice staff and volunteers united across BNSSG to deliver over 1.4 million Covid-19 vaccinations at PCN clinics, which is around 54% of all vaccinations delivered in BNSSG.

Reflecting on the last two years, Dr Geeta Iyer, Clinical Lead for Mass Vaccinations, said: “Since the beginning of the vaccination programme, our practices and PCNs have worked incredibly hard to deliver this huge number of vaccinations alongside core services. This has made a massive difference to people in BNSSG and has undoubtedly reduced pressures on our healthcare system.”

“PCNs and practices should be very proud of the work they have done and continue to do, working with their communities and the wider system to ensure patients can access essential services like vaccinations.”

Over the two years, more than 5,000 staff and volunteers were involved in over 50 GP-run clinics, providing communities with first, second and booster jabs.

PCN vaccination clinics have been praised by the public, with a recent survey showing 95% of patients thought their experience at a PCN clinic was very good or good. When asked about their vaccination experience, one patient said it was: “…perfectly orchestrated. I could not be more impressed”.

Ruth Hughes, programme manager for PCN vaccinations, said “General practice has played a huge part in ensuring the success of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, delivering over half the Covid-19 vaccinations in BNSSG. This emphasises the capability of general practice to meet their local population’s needs, but also the importance of involving general practice in future vaccination campaigns.

“I would like to thank all the staff and volunteers who worked together to run these GP clinics – without your hard work, this would not have been possible.”

It’s not too late to get vaccinated against Covid-19 – click here to find out more. Moving into the winter period, being vaccinated against flu and Covid-19 is the best way to protect yourself and those around you.

The general practice digital forum for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire held its first meeting on 8 November. 

Set up by One Care’s digital team, the forum is a place for practice digital leads to meet, discuss operational issues and challenges, share experiences, and take away lessons to apply to their own practice. 

Thirty-five people have already signed up to the group, and more than 20 attended the first meeting, with a mix of roles represented including practice managers, practice IT leads, GPs, PCN managers, and business managers. 

At the meeting, attendees discussed the various online consultation systems currently being used in BNSSG for patient triage and online messaging, and their pros and cons. BNSSG ICB also attended to provide an update on its current work and future plans in this area. 

Bex Tilling, One Care’s head of digital support, said: “The original suggestion for the forum came from a practice IT manager, and we’re delighted to have been able to help bring it about. The first meeting was a success – feedback has been great, and members are excited about the possibilities for the future. 

“We hope it’s going to be a valuable resource for digital leads in BNSSG, enabling them to pool their knowledge and experience. It will also help One Care to ensure our digital services deliver what practices need.” 

The forum will meet every two months, with a Microsoft Teams channel enabling discussion between meetings. 

If you would like to learn more about the forum, please visit the TeamNet page. If you’re interested in joining the forum, please email digital@onecare.org.uk.

The collaborative bank project has entered its next exciting phase, as the project looks for practices to begin staff sharing within their PCNs.

Facilitated by the Ryalto app, the collaborative bank enables practices to put out shift requests to local practice staff, and be quickly matched with colleagues who have the necessary skills and experience.

The aim is to increase the agility of the workforce across BNSSG, offering a way for practices to fill gaps in their workforce to meet their patients’ need.

The video below gives an overview of the project and the Ryalto app.

The app is currently being used in Network 4 and Healthwest to manage shifts for vaccination clinics to great success.

The project is supported by the GP Collaborative Board, and funded by BNSSG ICB.

The collaborative bank project has entered an exciting new phase, as Network 4 becomes the first Primary Care Network (PCN) in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) to use the Ryalto staff sharing app.

The collaborative bank project aims to enable sharing of staff across primary and community care in BNSSG. This will be done through a web and phone-based app developed by a company called Ryalto. It is hoped the project will increase workforce agility, reduce the need to use agency staff, and give staff the opportunity to develop their skills and experience across the BNSSG health and care system.

The project team is currently looking for practices who would like to use the app, initially within their PCN, with hopes staff sharing will expand to locality and eventually BNSSG level.

Network 4’s vaccination centre staff and volunteers are currently using the app to book their shifts. User adoption of the software has been highly successful, with 80% of eligible users becoming active on the app in less than a week. The app allows users to book shifts, see the latest organisational updates and communicate through secure chats.

Caroline Down, team leader for the Network 4 vaccination centre, said “I’m really excited to be using the Ryalto app to allocate shifts for the approaching Autumn booster campaign. A huge thanks to all our staff for adopting the technology so well and another thanks to Ryalto and One Care for their support during the onboarding process. I look forward to continuing to use the app over the next couple of months.”

Josh Cooper, One Care’s project manager for collaborative bank, said “We are delighted the initial onboarding of Network 4 vaccination clinic staff has been a success. A large proportion of the available shifts have already been booked and Ryalto have received some great initial user feedback. We will use what we’ve learned from the launch to streamline future onboarding. We hope other PCNs will join Network 4 in using the app for the upcoming booster vaccination campaign.”

If practices or PCNs are interested in taking part in the project, please contact josh.cooper@onecare.org.uk.

On Wednesday 4 May, One Care held our first annual shareholder event in over two years. This was the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic that we were able to come together in person as general practice in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire at scale. It was a brilliant afternoon and there was a real energy in the room.

The event provided a fantastic opportunity for practices to network, hear about the support One Care and the GP Collaborative Board can offer them over the next year and learn about the work we have been doing within the BNSSG healthcare system.

Guest speaker Fiona Adamson, Chair of the Primary Care Federation Network and the NHS Confederation, joined us virtually to give a thought-provoking talk on the opportunities and challenges for GP federations in Integrated Care Systems.

We were also very fortunate to be joined by Shane Devlin, Chief Executive of BNSSG Integrated Care Board, who spoke alongside Dr Jon Hayes, Chair of the GP Collaborative board. They gave an overview of our BNSSG Integrated Care System and the role of the General Practice Collaborative Board within it. Attendees were also given a unique chance to ask Shane questions regarding the Integrated Care Board and the changes to the BNSSG healthcare system as we move towards the introduction of the new health and care bill in July 2022.

Ruth Taylor, Chief Executive of One Care, led the agenda throughout the afternoon. She gave an overview of the work One Care has done over the last year and what services we aim to provide in the future.

An exciting section of the day was our marketplace, where attendees were able to talk to the different teams at One Care, find out more about the support they can provide, ask questions, and provide much welcomed feedback.

One Care’s Chief Executive Ruth Taylor commented on the afternoon saying “The shareholder event provided a great opportunity to come together with all our member practices, ensure they are aware of the support we can offer them and answer their questions. We were able to celebrate the incredible work and progress we have made as general practice in the two years since our last shareholder event. It was an energising afternoon and amazing to see so many familiar faces in person after such a long time and meet new colleagues too. I look forward to continuing discussions and supporting our practices to survive and thrive over the coming year.”

A huge thank you to all the practices who attended, the afternoon was a great success, and we look forward to coming together again next year.

One Care is working with the University of Bristol, on their research project which looks at the use of AmiTritypline for the prevention of post-HErpetic NeuralgiA (ATHENA).

Shingles is caused by a virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. It can make people feel unwell, cause pain and a rash can follow. Some people can develop nerve pain months after the rash has gone, called post-herpetic neuralgia. Researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Oxford, Southampton and Warwick want to find out if taking a tablet called amitriptyline can prevent persistent pain.  

Amitriptyline is a drug. To find out if using amitriptyline when the rash first appears prevents pain later, the clinical trial is recruiting 846 patients, aged 50+ who have been diagnosed by their GP with shingles. These patients will take tablets nightly for 10 weeks – half will be given amitriptyline and the other half will get a placebo tablet. Questionnaires will then be used to find out what happens to everyone over the following 12 months, especially whether they still have pain related to shingles at 90 days.  

Invited to take part in the study are 120 practices across three clinical research network (CRNs) areas – CRN West of England (this includes Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire), CRN Wessex and CRN Thames Valley. 

One Care is providing digital support to this clinical trial in the form of EMIS resource and data extraction. One Care has worked closely with the research team at University of Bristol, to understand the ideal process for identifying eligible patients at a practice and inviting them to the study. 

This has led to the design of an EMIS protocol which automatically alerts a clinician that a patient may be suitable to take part in the ATHENA study. One Care has also designed an EMIS search to collect the data needed by the health economists to undertake analysis for this research. 

The EMIS resources designed mean practices do not have to design their own, and a standardised design means higher quality data can be gathered. With One Care managing data extractions, it also reduces administrative work for the practices.   

Speaking about One Care’s involvement with the study, One Care’s Head of Digital Support Colette Buckley said “We’re really excited to be supporting this important research project. It’s a great opportunity to work with our academic colleagues to explore improvements to patient care. This is the first of many research projects we will be supporting in 2022.” 

If you’d like to learn more about how One Care is supporting this study, please contact emis.optimisation@onecare.org.uk  or call 0117 941 0900. 

One Care has been working alongside NBT and VANS to create a more efficient process for Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and general practices to request staff and volunteers for the mass vaccination programme in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG).

NBT, the lead employer for the vaccination programme, VANS, the lead voluntary organisation, and One Care have been working collaboratively and supporting each other to address staff shortage issues in relation to mass vaccination delivery within general practice.

When PCNs and practices have experienced vaccination staff shortages in the past, they would have multiple avenues to request cover from – a time consuming process which could result in double bookings and mis-communication due to the volume of responses.

But this newly-launched model sees One Care act as a single point of access for mass vaccination staffing requests, making the process more efficient and time effective for General Practice, staff, volunteers and system partners.

Bryony Campbell, One Care’s Assistant Director Transformation, said: “This new model that’s been set-up enables us to see all workforce requests across general practice for mass vaccination delivery.

“Having all requests in one place allows us to more effectively manage the peaks and troughs, work more closely with partners, but most importantly, practices have been asking for a single point of access to visit for workforce requests, which we have collaboratively produced.”

The new model was launched on 21 December, resulting in all necessary enquiries from PCNs – unless outside of office hours and required within the following 24 hours – being sent into One Care, who distribute requirements to NBT, VANS and any other part of the system, accordingly, depending on the nature of the request.

If you would like more information on the mass vaccination workforce coordination centre, please email pcnresourcesupport@onecare.org.uk.

One Care has now added the Serious Mental Illness (SMI) dashboard to its General Practice Intelligence Dashboard (GPID).

As per the local enhanced service (LES), people on the SMI register should receive a full set of six physical health checks over the 12 month period to April 2022.

The dashboard shows the number of people on practices’ SMI register, what proportion have had each of the health checks and how many have had the full set of six required.

Easy access to this data should support practices to focus on where uptake of physical health checks can be improved, which will help maximise on available income and improve patient outcomes.

As with elsewhere in GPID, users are able to filter the data by deprivation decile and ethnic group to further highlight disparities within a group already experiencing many forms of inequality.

Speaking on the SMI dashboard, One Care’s head of business intelligence Rhys Lewis said: “People living with serious mental illness (SMI) face stark health inequalities, including far higher risk of long-term physical health conditions and premature mortality. It is therefore important these patients have their physical health needs proactively met by increasing early detection through physical health checks and follow up interventions.”

“The SMI dashboard enables practices and PCNs to track what proportion of their patients on the SMI register have had each of the six core health checks in the last 12 months and how many are outstanding. By understanding which checks have been undertaken, practices know where they need to concentrate their efforts to maximise benefit for the greatest number of patients.”

“Alongside physical health checks, it is really important these patients are also prioritised for other types of preventative care and early detection, including Covid-19 and seasonal influenza vaccination, and cancer screening.”

If you have any questions about how to access your dashboard, contact onecare.analytics@onecare.org.uk.

One Care is pleased to have launched three new features on the General Practice Intelligence Dashboard, making data more accessible for practices.

Building on the success of the COVID-19 vaccination dashboards that practices and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) have been using to monitor the vaccination uptake among their population since the programme started in November 2020, a third dose vaccination dashboard is now live. This enables practices to track and monitor the number of patients who have taken up a booster or third primary dose vaccination.

The dashboard also allows practices to view the data by cohort (age or clinical vulnerability), and to filter by deprivation and ethnicity, providing a greater insight into the patients who have and haven’t taken up the vaccination.

Additionally, One Care has launched a brand-new feature: activity graphics, designed predominantly for use on social media.

The idea for this feature has come directly from discussions with several practices. It is hoped these graphics will enable practices to publicise and demonstrate their volume of face-to-face appointments, phone calls and COVID vaccines. Practices can adjust the time frame where necessary, giving their patients a greater understanding of the demand, traffic and success within each practice.

One Care has also successfully redeveloped the flu page on the dashboard, meaning practices and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) can monitor the uptake of the 2021/22 season influenza vaccine in their populations.

Cohorts reported on, which will be updated twice weekly, include those aged 65+, 50-64 and 2-3, as well as the clinically extremely vulnerable and clinical risk groups.

Commenting on the new dashboard features, One Care’s Head of Business Intelligence Rhys Lewis said: “We are really proud to create and release these three updates to our General Practice Intelligence Dashboards.

“Following the success of last year’s flu vaccine page, we have relaunched this for the 2021/22 campaign with a similar simple design but further detail on uptake in clinical risk groups and by level of deprivation. Similarly, we have refreshed the Covid-19 vaccination dashboard to include booster doses. All of this information can be used to celebrate the success of vaccination programmes to date and highlight inequalities and opportunities to improve population coverage and maximise income.

“The update I am most excited about is our new practice infographics. This dashboard gives practices quick and easy access to infographics that can be used to represent the brilliant work they are doing. By taking a simple screenshot, practices can share these graphics using social media or even on the screens in their waiting areas.

“We are always looking to develop new features to assist our practices and the latest ones should make a real difference in making the data more accessible and detailed which is our ultimate aim, so huge credit to everyone behind the scenes for their efforts.”

We are proud to announce that the Continuity of Care resource toolkit we helped develop has now been launched nationally by the RCGP and Health Foundation.

This toolkit combines real-life examples, ready-to-use resources, and improvement methodologies. We developed it together with Morecambe Bay Primary Care Collaborative, through the work we did with our practices as part of the Health Foundation’s improving Continuity in General Practice programme.

Through this toolkit, GP practices across the country will be able to discover the evidence behind continuity and it’s benefits for both patients and clinicians whilst also helping to support colleagues in primary care to take the next practical steps to improve continuity, regardless of their current progress.

The toolkit can be accessed .