Category Archives: News

Race to Zero campaign

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One Care has signed up to the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Climate Hub to join the global united national Race to Zero campaign, committed to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050.

Small and medium sized enterprises account for 90 per cent of business worldwide and affect the livelihood of two billion people. However, in the global effort to mitigate climate change, large businesses and governments have largely been the focus of the discussion. The SME Climate Hub aims to bring all businesses on board to net zero.

The SME Climate Hub mobilises and supports small and medium sized businesses to commit to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero emissions before 2050 – a milestone aimed at avoiding the worst effects of climate change while ensuring business viability.

By taking climate action through the SME Climate Hub, businesses can better navigate the shifting expectations of consumers, large corporations, and governments.

Climate action gives SMEs a competitive advantage and enables them to future-proof their business by:

  • Improving efficiencies and reducing costs
  • Managing business risk
  • Enhancing access to capital and affordable insurance
  • Providing unique growth opportunities
  • Building supply chain resilience and
  • Strengthening marketing and branding efforts.

To date, over 2600 SMEs across 84 countries have made the commitment.

For more information on tackling climate change through SME Climate Hub, click here.

Community Phlebotomy successfully rolled out

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One Care has been involved in supporting general practice and system partners to develop a new process for taking bloods in community settings. 

Prior to the Covid pandemic, there were 18,000 bloods taken across general practice and acute outpatient departments every week via the North Bristol Trust (NBT) and University Hospital Bristol (UHB) labs, with additional bloods being done at Weston General Hospital.

For many years, general practice has taken outpatient bloods on behalf of secondary care (hospitals), taking responsibility for both the phlebotomy but also the interpretation, communication and risk holding associated with these blood results.

This has been a significant workload for practices, but they have not been contracted to do the work. It is beneficial for patients to have their bloods taken in general practice as it means they can access care closer to home.

The community phlebotomy programme – otherwise referred to as secondary care bloods – has sought to address the governance of this work, ensuring blood results are returned to the requester in secondary care and to properly resource general practice to deliver this service. Over the last year primary and secondary care have been working together, supported by the CCG, to establish a standard process for this, putting patient experience and safety at the heart of the programme. This collaborative approach saw general practice and the trusts working as equal partners in the design of this new way of working.

The community phlebotomy service was fully launched on 31 October after a soft launch on 1 July, which saw primary and secondary care all working to the same standard operating procedure. Primary and secondary care will continue to work together with the CCG in this new phase of the programme to ensure a smooth transition into this new way of system working and to scope out further potential for development.

One Care have been well placed to support practices in the programme’s development due to the trusted relationships already established with practices.

As an integral part of the working group, One Care was involved in the first aspects of building up the business case for the programme, including initial data collection to confirm phlebotomy volumes and negotiating an item of service fee so practices were sufficiently remunerated for the work.

Throughout the programme, which has supported the outpatient transformation in a clinically safe, understood, and funded way, One Care has provided support for practices, in the form of regular communications, training for practice staff, trouble-shooting issues practices are having and developing EMIS resources to support the programme.

The next steps will see One Care analyse the data being collected to monitor the numbers of secondary care bloods being done in primary care and develop a dashboard to present this information back to practices. This data will also be used to monitor the success of the programme and will highlight any areas for improvement.

GP Collaborative Board Coordinator Rosie Southwell said: “A huge thanks goes to Nicola McGuinness (GP Collaborative Board lead) and Geeta Iyer (CCG Primary Care Development Clinical lead) for their leadership in the programme.

“It’s been really inspiring to see how general practice can influence positive change in the system when we come together with one voice. This has been one of the first programmes of work driven forward by our newly formed GP Collaborative Board.

“Practices have been really supportive and engaged throughout the programme – the feedback we’ve received has been extremely encouraging.

“We have lots of learning to take forward into the future as partners across our system begin to work even more closely together in an Integrated Care system. This is a great example of what can be achieved when we work collaboratively to find a solution that works for our population.”

Self-care for better health and wellbeing

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During national Self-Care Week (15-21 November 2021), doctors and pharmacists in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire are encouraging people to get ‘self-care aware’ by practicing a healthy lifestyle and familiarising themselves with how to treat minor ailments and illnesses at home.

The national campaign aims to help people to better look after their own health – including self-treating very minor illnesses or injuries with help from pharmacists and the NHS website, taking steps to manage long-term health conditions and making healthy lifestyle choices such as exercising and eating well.

Local GP Dr Jonathan Hayes is chair of the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group and is backing the campaign. He said: “Self-care and knowing how to look after our physical and mental wellbeing is a vital skill that we can all learn and it’s especially important at this time of year as we approach winter when staying healthy is so important.

“We already practice self-care by brushing our teeth, exercising and wrapping up warm during cold weather, but self-care can also include treating minor ailments at home and managing long-term conditions like diabetes or asthma with advice from your local pharmacist or family doctor.

“Fortunately there is wealth of advice and information out there to help people do this – and better still, by practicing self-care, people can help doctors, nurses and other professionals to care for those who really need their skills and expertise.”

This year’s campaign theme is ‘Practise Self Care for Life’ with a focus on developing long-term self-care habits for a happier, healthier life.

Here are seven top tips for better self-care this winter:

1. Get the right advice

Self-care advice and help with treating very minor ailments is available from your local GP and pharmacist as well as the NHS website and the Self Care Forum.

For parents of young children, there’s the NHS HANDi App which gives parents specialist, up-to-date advice on common childhood illnesses and how to treat them. You can download it free for all smartphones.

This winter children’s charity Barnado’s has also introduced a new multilingual helpline offering advice about respiratory illnesses in children aged 0-3 for parents/carers from Black, Asian and Minority communities. Parents/carers can call the Boloh helpline on 0800 151 2605.

2. Talk to a pharmacist

With over 150 pharmacies across the area, you’re never far from a pharmacy and they’re a great source of expert advice on a wide range of winter illnesses. Community pharmacists are qualified healthcare professionals who can offer clinical advice as well as over-the-counter medicines.

Pharmacies are open throughout the day, evening and on weekends and you can be seen without an appointment. All pharmacies have a consultation room so you can discuss your queries and concerns in a private setting if you need to.

3. Keep a well-stocked medicine cabinet

Minor illnesses like coughs, colds, headaches and diarrhoea can quite easily disrupt your daily life if left alone. You can help yourself (and your family) feel better or recover at home if you have the right variety of medicines to hand.

Your community pharmacist will be able to advise you on the best options, and importantly which products are suitable for children.

4. Manage long-term conditions

Self-management helps people with long-term conditions like diabetes, arthritis or asthma to take control of their treatment by finding out more about their condition, learning skills to manage their health and working in partnership with their health team.

For example, your GP can help you develop an action plan and your pharmacist can also help with a medication review.

The Patients Association has more advice on self-management of long-term conditions.

5. Reduce alcohol intake and give up smoking

Stopping smoking and reducing your alcohol intake is a powerful way to self-care for the long term and minimise your chances of a wide range of health problems.

See the NHS Quit Smoking or Alcohol Support websites for more information.

6. Stay active

Whatever your age, there’s strong evidence that being physically active can help you lead a healthier and happier life. Try to be active every day and aim to achieve at least 20 minutes of physical activity per day through a variety of activities. See the NHS Get Active web pages.

7. Eat well

Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health and can help you feel your best. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions and consuming the right amount of food and drink to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight – see the NHS Eatwell Guide for more advice.

One Care support for our practices between July and September 2021

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We have published our latest quarterly round-up of strategic changes, information about new One Care projects and a one-page infographic showing the direct support we’ve provided to practices.

This year has continued to be extremely challenging and pressured for the NHS, including in general practice. In early August, One Care reinstated a situation reporting process which our practices could use to escalate any workforce and workload issues they were facing. This enabled One Care to contact practices in need of support throughout August and September, leading to several new guides and tools being published, including the development of the practice activity graphics in the General Practice Intelligence Dashboard.

Through One Care’s new staff support service, twenty-one new members of staff have had their induction to Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) general practice. This is a brilliant opportunity for those who are new to general practice or to the area to get a feel for the landscape they will be working in and to understand what One Care can offer to their practice or PCN.

Click to enlarge infographic

This year, we have provided a range of resources to support practices with managing flu season. This included EMIS searches and protocols, which were published earlier than in any previous year. We also launched the improved flu page in the General Practice Intelligence Dashboard. This year’s data will be updated twice a week and reports on additional cohorts aligned to the 21/22 Investment and Impact Fund indicators.

One of One Care’s key priorities for this financial year is to develop a longer-term subscription model for the organisation that is separate from improved access. We will move to this new model from April 2022. As part of this work, we need to identify current and future practice needs and the value that our members put on different elements of our offer. We started this work earlier in the year by looking at data from the last year around usage of our current services. In July, we met with a working group of practice representatives, who provided us with some initial feedback about what they value most now, and what they would like to see us develop moving forward.

More recently, we sent a survey to all practices to understand which of our services practices value most and how we should structure our subscription. The results will be used by the One Care board and executive team to inform our subscription offer for next year onwards.

There have been several changes within the One Care team in recent months. We appointment our new Medical Director Dr Mark O’Connor in August and some of our existing team members’ role titles have changed to better reflect the work that they and their teams are currently doing: Rhys Lewis is Head of Business Intelligence; Bryony Campbell is Assistant Director (Transformation); and Emma Goulden is Head of Marketing and Communications.

One Care has continued to offer support to the GP Collaborative Board. In July, the GPCB appointed their substantive Vice-Chair, Dr Katrina Boutin, who has now taken up this post. At the end of September, the GPCB announced the appointment of Dr Jonathan Hayes to the role of Chair. Jon will take up his post at the beginning of December. One Care has been offering project management and coordination support to the system-wide initiatives, such as community phlebotomy. Over the summer, this has included running training sessions and publishing additional guidance for all members of the practice team. We have also been part of several projects to support staffing in general practice (including for Covid-19 vaccinations). This has included setting up ten different staff sharing agreements to enable safe movement of staff between practices and other NHS organisations.

If you would like to learn more about One Care, how we work and how we can support your practice, please get in touch.

New data in General Practice Activity Report

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In an exciting development, One Care has updated its existing General Practice Activity Report (GPAR) to include a further breakdown of the clinical and non-clinical activity happening in general practice each week.

Click to enlarge the graph.

One Care has been producing this report on a weekly basis since April 2021. The report is shared with our system partners, practices and with the public.


GPAR has now been upgraded to provide a more accurate representation of the work happening in general practice and the current pressures being faced.

Click to enlarge the graph.

Further developing the report will enable our system to move towards having a view of activity in general practice that is more like the data presented by other healthcare providers, such as hospitals and community providers, who are able to present rich data about their demand and capacity.

In the new format, clinician activity is now broken down by clinician type and lead time to give a greater understanding of the urgency and complexity of care delivered.

Click to enlarge the graph.

Telephony volumes have also been split to demonstrate incoming and outgoing calls, which highlights the increase in patient demand and telephone consultations. The data can also be compared to historical trends, to show change over time.

Click to enlarge the graph.

View the latest data representing practices across BNSSG up to 5 November here. 

Accept your invitation to the flu vaccine

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Our local NHS is encouraging the population to take up the flu vaccine this winter.

Following the interventions put in place for Covid-19, such as mask wearing, social distancing and restricted international travel, the cases of flu were extremely low globally in 2020 to 2021. As a result, fewer people are expected to be immune to flu between 2021 and 2022.

Projections indicate the 2021 to 2022 flu season could be 50 per cent larger than typically seen and it is also possible for people to suffer from flu earlier than usual.

Adding to the pressures already faced by the NHS, the coming winter will be the first in the UK when the flu virus (and other respiratory viruses) will exist alongside Covid-19, with there also being the possibility for both viruses to coincide.

Flu vaccinations are therefore an important priority to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with the virus, and to reduce hospitalisations during a time when the NHS and social care may also be managing winter outbreaks of Covid-19.

Video credit to ITV West Country

The following groups are eligible to receive their flu vaccinations this year:

  • Carers – young or adult
  • Health and social care workers
  • Residential Care home staff
  • Household contact of those in the NHS shieled list and immunocompromised individuals
  • At risk school aged children
  • All 2-3 year olds
  • Any individuals in at-risk groups
  • Over-50s

If you are eligible for the free flu vaccine, you may get it either from your own GP practice, once you are invited, or any pharmacy offering NHS flu vaccinations.

For more information on the flu vaccination, click here.

PCN mental health analytics project

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One Care has been working with a Primary Care Network (PCN) over recent months to identify patients with an active mental health condition who might benefit from a tailored intervention.

The overall aim of the project is to improve outcomes for groups of patients with mental health troubles.

It has been widely recognised that Covid-19, and the wider effects of the pandemic, have significantly impacted mental health, aggravating pre-existing conditions as well as affecting people who have not previously experienced poor mental health.

One Care has been working with PCNs and system partners to understand how general practice can be supported to use data and analytics to get a better understanding of their population needs, highlight inequalities, and identify cohorts that would benefit from intervention.

One Care is delivering this mental health project to the unnamed PCN through a series of presentations and meetings, sharing an excel based tool and several reports produced using the system, R.

When comparing data from the PCN’s population between 2019 and 2021, as per the below graph, it’s clear to see the different percentage changes in patient activity for mental health (mh) and non-mental health cohorts.

January to March 2020 saw more patients across the two cohorts require medical attention in comparison to the same period in 2019, with the first lockdown reducing activity for both. But from June 2020 to present, there has been a substantial rise in activity for the mental health cohort.

To achieve the desired outcome, One Care identified all patients with active mental health conditions using clinically agreed code sets, before they were narrowed down further using demographic, social and health information.

The below graph is a visual representation for how data was used to agree a criteria to identify a cohort of patients from the PCN population that will benefit from a specific tailored intervention.

Having collated all the data, One Care is able to compare the group with the rest of the PCN population, highlighting how their health needs and health service utilisation differ.

One Care’s business intelligence team have begun to uncover and highlight how within patients with an active mental health condition there were some distinct groups and outliers that might benefit from specific intervention.

Applying these pre-identified criteria means One Care can provide a list of patients, alongside their health and demographic information, to PCN clinical leaders and managers. These clinicians can now review the list of patients and decide on suitable intervention, which One Care can support.

One Care offer a number of direct support services to our practices, PCNs and localities. Our analysts have access to local practice data which we present back to our practices through the General Practice Intelligence Dashboards. Our team can work with practice or PCN staff to analyse the data and turn it into intelligence, empowering practices to make decisions based on up-to-date information about activity in their practice.

One Care is working on a model of support to offer this service to more PCNs in the future, so if you would like to carry out a similar piece of work in your area, please contact rhys.lewis@onecare.org.uk.

New features in the General Practice Intelligence Dashboard

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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.”

Continuity of Care toolkit launch

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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 .

Dr Jon Hayes appointed new Chair of the GP Collaborative Board 

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We are pleased to be able to announce the newly appointed Chair of the GP Collaborative Board (GPCB) as Dr Jon Hayes. Many of you will know Jon from his roles as GP Partner at Hanham Health since 1999, and Clinical Chair of Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) CCG since its inception as an organisation in 2018. 

The interview process was led by a sub-group of GPCB members, consisting of Dr Nicola McGuinness, Dr Sarah Pepper, Dr Richard Berkley and Dr Lee Salkeld. Ruth Taylor, Chief Executive of One Care, was a non-voting observer and the panel was chaired by an independent member, Jeff Farrar, interim Chair of the Healthier Together Partnership Board and Chair of University Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW). The panel put forward their decision to the Board for ratification in early September. 

On behalf of the recruitment sub-group, Dr Lee Salkeld said: 

“We are really excited about Jon’s appointment to the role of Chair of the GP Collaborative Board. He brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and relationships to the Board at this important time in our development. 

Throughout the recruitment process, Jon demonstrated that his 20+ years of working in grass roots general practice combined with his in-depth understanding of the intricacies of our health system mean that he is perfectly positioned to lead us through the challenges and opportunities ahead. 

The Board is looking forward to working with Jon to really cement the role of the GP Collaborative Board in representing, advocating, and working on behalf of general practice in our Integrated Care System.” 

Jon will remain as Chair of the CCG until March 2022 ahead of the transition to the new Integrated Care Board arrangements from April. He will, however, step down as Chair of the Clinical Executive on 31 November. This will ensure that he is not involved in commissioning decisions about primary care and mitigate the risk of any conflict of interest. He will take up his role as Chair of the GPCB in December. Until then, he will attend GPCB meetings as Chair designate, and Board meetings will be chaired by our Vice-Chair, Dr Katrina Boutin, whose appointment we announced in early August 2021. 

Commenting on the appointment, Dr Jon Hayes said: 

“I am thrilled to be appointed as the Chair of the GP Collaborative Board. 

General Practice has achieved so much over the last 18 months – from fast-tracking digital transformation, to driving the local vaccination roll-out and managing the current surge in service demand. Practices have forged new partnerships with our populations, communities and colleagues across the health and care system – and whilst it’s been tough, we have much to build on.  

The GPCB already plays a critical role in the health and care system, and will continue to do so – particularly as we move towards the statutory Integrated Care System (ICS) landscape. It’s important that we have a strong collective voice as general practice, and as the new Chair, I’m really looking forward to working closely with all practices across BNSSG to make that happen.” 

Dr Simon Bradley held the role of Interim Chair of the GP Collaborative Board since its inception in September 2020. On behalf of the GP Collaborative Board, Dr Katrina Boutin said: 

“We would like to offer heartfelt thanks to Simon for his visionary leadership, tenacity and commitment to the Board during his time in the role. He has been instrumental in taking the GP Collaborative Board from concept into reality.” 

Simon will continue to be a member of the GP Collaborative Board in his role as Chair of One Care.