‘Transforming general practice: what are the levers for a change?’ is a report from The Nuffied Trust that was published on 17 June 2015.

The Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund Waves 1 and 2, and ‘The Five Year Forward View’ demonstrate that both the government and NHS leaders believe that “general practice has a key role to play in the reform of the NHS…. But if general practice is to advance with the pace and ambition implied within the ‘Five Year Forward View’, it also needs to develop greater scale and to morph… into larger organisations”.

The report explores how to achieve sustainable change and improvement in general practice and is based on a workshop held at the Nuffield Trust.

It contains a number of case studies and concludes with 6 recommendations:

1. Strike a different balance between financial micro-incentives for small-scale change and investment for sustainable improvement in general practice
2. Create a coherence between existing workforce strategies and training curricula that ensure exposure to new ways of working
3. Develop realistic estimates of the costs of transformation programmes, including the cost of the professional participation
4. Invest in information and data linkage to support transformation
5. Set realistic time frames for delivering outcomes and managing risk
6. Avoid excessive policy to guide primary care transformation.

Read the full report.

We are delighted now to confirm that One Care Consortium was successful in securing a further £4.4 million from the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund (PMCF) Wave 2. This enables us to extend our primary care developments to all practices across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire serving almost 1 million patients.

We will therefore be extending an invitation to all practices across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire to join the One Care programme and we will be in touch with practices shortly with more information regarding this process.

One Care Consortium is one of 37 PMCF Wave Two pilot schemes which have been chosen to lead the way in testing innovative ways of increasing access and delivering wider transformational change in general practice.

On 27th February 2015, The Royal College of General Practitioners published a paper which examines a wide range of initiatives to improve patient access to general practice.

Areas explored include:

• Availability and proximity of care: bringing GP services closer to patients
• Timeliness of care
• Ability to see a preferred GP or nurse

A number of brief case studies can also be found within this paper, including initiatives that have been funded by the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund.

The paper contains information and advice that is relevant to One Care’s vision of improving access in our local area and also stresses the equal importance of both easier access and continuity of care. Proper evaluation and evidence are recognised as vital given the number of different ideas being piloted across different areas.

One Care Consortium will be hosting a large-scale information event on Thursday, 26th March, where we hope to share the primary care service developments that we have initiated over the past year, and our plans for the next 12 months.

The event will include:

• presentations from the One Care Programme Team;
• information regarding the One Care vision;
• an insight into One Care from a practice perspective, from the point of view of both a GP and a Practice Manager;
• group discussions relating to ideas and challenges facing primary care; and
• networking opportunities between practices

We are happy to announce that our first two pilot practices are ready to “Go Live” with the WebGP suite of online services in the very near future.

Their existing practice websites will allow access to these services from the morning of the 26th February. Using WebGP, patients can find self-care information; pharmacy advice and the opportunity to consult a doctor online.

One Care is looking forward to extending  WebGP services to our remaining pilot practices, with a view to have the next cohort of practices “Going Live” in the coming months.

For more information about WebGP please click here.

We have recently updated the One Care Consortium Members Area! We have added our best EMIS Web Tips and Tricks, along with information from our recent Web GP Training and Information Event held in January 2015 and further information from our Wave One Event from December 2014.

If you are a member of a One Care Consortium organisation and do not know how to access our members area, please contact the Programme Team to find out how.

Dr Robert Varnum,  Head of General Practice Development at NHS England, has written an article titled ‘The innovations challenge to Primary Care‘.

In the article Dr Varnam relates the content of the Five Year Forward View to the role of the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund in bringing about improvement and innovation.

He reflects upon the successes so far of the first cohort of PMCF pilot sites and how the learning from the 20 Wave One programmes will teach valuable lessons to those who are successful in their bids for Wave Two.

“Primary care has demonstrated that it is ready to step up to the plate if given the headroom to innovate.”

Read the full article.

This report, by the Urgent Care Commission and supported by Care UK makes eight recommendations to improve standards and ensure the most efficient use of resources.

According to the report,  “the value of out of hours care as a sector must have a stronger position through a more tailored and informed approach to workforce development, communications, commissioning and delivery.”

The report responds in part to the NHS Five Year Forward View. It stresses the importance of system-wide quality standards for GP Out of Hours and strong relationships between commissioners and providers. Better integration between hospitals and Out of Hours services is key and “data sharing requires a national solution”.

Read the full report here.

One Care Consortium are recruiting for a number of support roles within our Programme Team.

Are you the person we are looking for? Are you up for working differently? Improving the efficiency of the NHS? Does the prospect of joining an innovative and ground breaking team interest you? If so, consider becoming part of the One Care team.

All roles within One Care require people with a diverse range of skills and abilities. We need people who are effective at:

• working as part of a team
• using initiative and determination
• planning and organising their work
• communicating with others
• anticipating and solving problems
• embracing change
• learning new skills and acquiring knowledge
• customer relations

Find out more in our work for us section.

On October 23 2014, the NHS Five Year Forward View was published. The report describes why change is needed in the NHS, what the future could look like and how we might get there.

What does this mean for primary care?

According to the report, “the foundation of the NHS will remain list-based primary care” but significant changes may impact the way services are provided. The Five Year Forward View describes a number of new care models, including the ‘Multispeciality Community Provider’ (MCP) and ‘Primary and Acute Care Systems’ (PACS).

The Forward View indicates that decisive steps will be taken to break down barriers for better integrated care, including for urgent care. It is promising to “invest more in primary care”, including by providing funding through schemes such as our own Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund.

The report also mentions the important role than online resources and pharmacies can play in the future of primary care.

Read more about the NHS Five Year Forward View and download the report here.