Category Archives: News

OPEL – a new pressure reporting system for general practice

February 17, 2025NewsPressure, OPEL, PCN, General PracticeGrace Hield

One Care’s business intelligence team and urgent care programme are developing a new online OPEL reporting system for BNSSG general practice.

OPEL stands for operational pressures escalation levels. With the need to demonstrate general practice pressure high on the national agenda, the new system will provide a daily, data-based picture of activity.

It will enable general practice to demonstrate the pressure it is under in the same way as the acute hospitals and other providers, and will:

support robust representation for general practice within the BNSSG system
strengthen general practice’s position for negotiating increased resources
help to identify practices who could benefit from One Care support

Extracted data

The OPEL reporting uses EMIS explorer analytics (EXA) to automatically extract daily information from practice appointment books, to demonstrate on-the-day demand and capacity.

The extracted data will generate OPEL levels for each practice (green, amber, red, black) based on agreed percentages. This will feed into the system-wide OPEL reporting, and trigger action cards outlining recommendations for each level. The action cards are being developed with the ICB and system colleagues.

Mitigating issues

A key aim of the new system is to identify patterns and risks early, and offer practices proactive, tailored support. For those practices under significant pressure, a range of agreed actions and interventions will be available. One Care is working with the ICB and partners to develop these.

Development and launch

The project will be implemented in phases, initially looking at capacity and activity over a rolling period to generate baseline data and trends. This will be refined over time as the system learns each practices’ patterns, and further elements will be introduced.

One Care has worked with a test practice to trial the data extraction, and is now on-boarding practices. Practices wanting to be included in, and have access to, the reporting will need to sign the data sharing agreement and switch on EXA – please contact business.intellgence@onecare.org.uk for help with this. Avon LMC is supportive of the project and encourages practices to sign up.

If you’d like to know more, please contact ruth.thomas@onecare.org.uk

You can also watch February’s webinar, covering the project’s development and planned implementation here – Urgent care programme TeamNet page

Planning for the end of the financial year and beyond

February 13, 2025NewsGrace Hield

As the end of the financial year approaches, advice from One Care teams can help you get ahead with your planning.

The data experts in our business intelligence team can help you understand your data for QOF, SMI and LD health checks, and for the investment and impact fund (IIF). All the information for this is available on your practice dashboard, but if you need help with it, please get in touch. The team can give you a more detailed picture of your achievements to date and any shortfalls, to make sure you’re getting paid properly.

Please contact business.intelligence@onecare.org.uk

Also take a look at the financial advice from our general practice support team on how to make a financial plan; maximise income streams; and reduce costs. The article contains plenty of top tips, with links to other resources for more detailed information.

Our GPS team also offers practices a confidential and informal review of your finances. Please contact practice.support@onecare.org.uk.

Both teams’ advice, support and resources are available free of charge, as part of your One Care subscription.

Supporting you to meet the Accessible Information Standard

February 11, 2025NewsBNSSG, General PracticeGrace Hield

The Accessible Information Standard (AIS) has been a legal requirement for all organisations that provide NHS care, including general practice, since 2016. There is now a concerted effort across the BNSSG system to ensure all partners (NBT, UHBW, Sirona, local authorities) comply with the Standard in an effort to improve care for people with disabilities.

The AIS aims to ensure everyone can understand the information they need as part of their care. For some people, i.e. those with physical, sensory or cognitive impairments, this may require healthcare organisations to make some reasonable adjustments.

One Care’s AIS project can help your practice achieve compliance with the AIS. You can read our top tips below, download the AIS toolkit from TeamNet, and contact us for one-to-one bespoke support and staff training. The one-to-one support will take you through the practical steps needed to implement the AIS, and help you successfully integrate compliance into your existing practice processes.

There are five steps to the AIS. They are Identify, Record, Flag, Share, and Meet.

Here are some things you can do to help your practice implement these steps.

Put posters up in your waiting room to encourage patients or their carers to let you know what reasonable adjustments they might need. You could also put a line on patient correspondence to let them know they can request information in alternative formats, such as braille or large print
Use the Reasonable Adjustments Digital Flag and / or EMIS warnings to record patients’ information and communication needs, to ensure they’re visible to colleagues accessing their records
When recording reasonable adjustments, focus on needs rather than conditions. For example, rather than “patient has macular degeneration” try “needs letters in large print” and specify the font size
Ensure staff are aware of the AIS and your practice’s policies and procedures
Log incidents where patients’ AIS needs are not met, e.g. as learning events

Remember, compliance with the AIS forms part of CQC inspections, under the key statement ‘providing information’. It’s therefore important to document what your practice is doing to meet the Standard.

If you would like more information, or one-to-one support with the AIS, please contact alasdair.wallace@onecare.org.uk

GPCB 2024 round up and 2025 priorities

February 7, 2025NewsGrace Hield

GPCB representation and action

Last year the General Practice Collaborative Board (GPCB) continued to strengthen ties with the wider integrated care system (ICS) to enable One Care-subscribing practices to participate as an equal system partner.

The GPCB represents the diverse make-up of BNSSG general practice; the board includes members from PCN and localities, both clinical and managerial, as well as Avon LMC, BrisDoc and One Care representatives. The Chair and One Care CEO have seats on the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) Board and the ICB Board, meaning general practice is represented at the most senior level in the system.

The GPCB programmes and clinical leads have been instrumental in bringing practical changes and developments to patient care and practice management.

GPCB achievements in 2024

In the last year, the GPCB has been a driving force on many issues faced by general practice, including:

acute respiratory infection (ARI) funding: annual additional funding brought as business as usual to all practices to support with winter pressures
workforce wellbeing, retention and recruitment: the workforce programme initiated workforce nominations, work experience, recruitment schemes and an agreed locum rate with agencies to support controlled workforce rates
inappropriate work requests from secondary care: the planned care programme and LMC review inappropriate requests to practices identifying trends and feed back to the requester
testing new and emerging technologies: the digital strategy team used local funding and brought in national funding to test technologies through pilots with member practices
the primary and secondary care interface: GPCB clinical leads for planned care and urgent care work collaboratively across the system to create principles and ways to improve relationships across providers, and improve patients’ experience

Coming up in 2025

The GPCB key priority for the next six months is developing ‘future general practice’ plans. This aims to put general practice on the front foot and align with government ambitions to move the NHS from ‘hospital to community’, ‘analogue to digital’ and ‘treatment to prevention’. It will also examine how we support the development of practices to continue to deliver effective care.

The GPCB feels it is important for general practice in BNSSG to have a clear vision for the future. Each locality will use forum meetings in early 2025 to discuss what the future should look like. Every practice is invited to send two representatives to the pan-BNSSG forum meeting in March to further develop these ideas.

GPCB chair: Dr Jacob Lee

In December we thanked Dr Jon Hayes for his time as GPCB chair and welcomed Dr Jacob Lee to the role. Jake joined BNSSG general practice in 2011 and has been a GP partner, clinical guardian and out of hours GP for Brisdoc, and medical director for One Care. Since 2018, Jake has been a GP partner at Horfield Health Centre in Bristol and is the clinical lead for the North and West locality and chair of the North and West locality forum. Jake is an advocate of relational continuity of care for patients. He was the clinical lead for the BNSSG element of a Health Foundation continuity of care project, and gave expert evidence on its benefits to the Health and Social Care Parliamentary Select Committee in 2022.

Find out more about the GPCB on the GPCB TeamNet page and watch our short video explainer.

Targeted flu vaccination outreach for at-risk communities

February 5, 2025NewsGrace Hield

In response to pressures across the BNSSG healthcare system, and the predicted flu surge, the GPCB’s urgent care programme successfully secured an additional £20,000 of funding for PCNs to increase flu vaccination uptake among their at-risk communities and patients.

The funding was to support the delivery of additional, more focussed outreach work in those groups.

Ruth Thomas, GPCB urgent care programme lead, said: “Practices used their own vaccination data and knowledge of their local communities to identify which patient groups to target with their additional outreach work. All the identified patients had previously been invited for vaccination via the more standard methods, so practices had to use alternative ways to encourage take up.”

Approaches varied by practice. Some targeted patients with diabetes, respiratory conditions, and chronic heart disease, while others prioritised outreach to asylum seekers, non-English speakers, and ethnic minority groups with a lower uptake. Some practices also targeted younger age groups, who are typically less likely to get vaccinated.

To boost take-up, practices used a combination of phone call reminders, opportunistic vaccinations, and social media and website updates. Practices also engaged with local community groups online to help spread the message, held ad hoc vaccination clinics and drop-in sessions – some in community centres – and offered weekend and evening appointments. Patients were also reminded they could get vaccinated at their local pharmacy.

Ruth added: “We had to move quickly to secure the funding, and practices had to move quickly to put the additional outreach work into action. The whole project has been a great example of how we can all adapt and respond to support system pressures – especially at a time when PCNs were already busy managing winter demands and providing additional ARI slots too.”

The urgent care programme will now evaluate the initiative, looking at the number of vaccines delivered, what worked well, what could be improved, and any successful strategies practices can use in their future planning.

If you’d like to find out more about the flu outreach initiative please contact ruth.thomas@onecare.org.uk

NHS App project

January 31, 2025NewsNHS App, General PracticeGrace Hield

The NHS App project aims to increase the usage of the NHS App, promote digital inclusion, and reduce SMS costs by maximising messaging sent through the NHS App free of charge.

The project, which is funded by the ICB, has been in collaboration with practices across BNSSG, to ensure they understand the benefits of the app, how they can integrate it into their own workflows and how best to support patients in using it. Organisations such as the acute hospitals, AWP, local councils and Sirona sit on the project board and contribute to the project aims.

To reduce traffic to practice phonelines, the project has shared details of community organisations (e.g. public libraries and VCSE’s) with BNSSG practices, to provide patients with support and guidance on how to use the app to manage their care online.

The project has also launched a local communications campaign in which they sent NHS App promotional materials to all pharmacies across BNSSG.

The NHS App project:

releases time for practices by streamlining patient access to medical records, test results and ordering repeat prescriptions on the app
automates the process for reducing SMS templates and provides practices within BNSSG with the resource to do so, enabling efficient use of SMS messaging – the costs for which are covered by the ICB
promotes digital inclusion by engaging patients in one-to-one support sessions to encourage the use of the NHS App through supporting with language barriers and providing access to devices and connectivity

The NHS App project provides free training to staff in general practice on the promotion and functionality of the app. Grace Mander, the project manager for the NHS App project, has said ‘This support has helped practices feel confident about promoting the app to their patients.’

Please reach out to Grace or the team at nhs.app@onecare.org.uk to understand how the NHS App can benefit your practice and your patients.

Expanded specialist support for practices

January 21, 2025NewsGrace Hield

One Care’s general practice support team has expanded to offer practices even greater expert knowledge and help.

In response to feedback from practices about the type of support they find most useful, the team has been joined by a development advisor, and a general practice quality advisor. Read on to find out more about our new team members and what they can do for your practice:

Zoe Turner – general practice quality advisor

In her new role at One Care, Zoe provides tailored support to practices helping them:

achieve CQC compliance
improve clinical quality outcomes
embed robust governance frameworks

She also offers practical guidance on managing inspections, implementing quality improvement initiatives, and aligning practice operations with regulatory requirements.

By working with Zoe, practices can strengthen their operational efficiency and compliance processes, enhancing patient safety and care.

Zoe Turner is a healthcare transformation and improvement specialist with 10 years’ experience in general practice. More recently, she has worked with practices to implement modern general practice and enhance patient access, as well as helping them to comply with regulatory standards.

Contact Zoe: zoe.turner@onecare.org.uk

Judith Forde – development advisor

Judith can help with practices with:

business process analysis, including process and patient journey mapping
strategic planning
change management, including adopting new ways of working
project management

Judith is already our planned care project manager having joined One Care in 2023. Previously, Judith worked in social housing for over 25 years, including roles in strategic planning and service improvement.

As well as a postgraduate diploma in management, Judith is an APMG change management practitioner / agile change coach, and is on the NHS change management steering group.

Contact Judith: Judith.forde@onecare.org.uk

Steve Mowatt, general practice support and operations executive director, said: “As a member organisation, we want to help our practices in whatever way they find most useful. Our new team members will do exactly that, and will enhance the expertise we already provide in areas we know are vital to the efficient running of a modern, successful practice.”

Top tips: 2024-5 finance planning for practices

January 14, 2025NewsGrace Hield

Advice from the finance experts in our general practice support team can help you get ahead with your financial planning before details of the 2025-26 contract arrangements are confirmed.

Take a look at the team’s article here on how to make a financial plan; maximise income streams; and reduce costs. The article contains plenty of top tips, with links to other resources for more detailed information.

And don’t forget our general practice support team also offers practices a confidential and informal review of your practice’s finances. The reviews are available free of charge, as part of your One Care subscription.

For any finance questions, or to book a finance review, please contact practice.support@onecare.org.uk

Improving business efficiency – appointment slot analysis

January 8, 2025NewsGrace Hield

Taking a careful look at how your practice’s appointment book is managed can help improve overall efficiency and future business planning. One Care’s business intelligence team can analyse how you utilise your slots, if use of your workforce is optimised, and how accurate your appointment planning is.

Read on to find out how an appointment analysis can improve your practice’s operations, and how the team helped a PCN improve use of staff time and demand mapping.

How can your practice benefit from this?

Our BI team can investigate the appointments your practice offers and books. This will help you to:

adjust your slot provision to suit patient demand
structure appointments based on the actual duration rather than an assumed duration
consider refining the types of slots you offer
book additional patients to fill slots
plot staff working patterns against the appointment data

The analysis can be specific to clinicians and roles, or it can be a broad investigation of all users in your appointment book. It can also look at specific cohorts of patients – the nature of the work they generate and the time it takes, DNA rates, and planned and actual appointment durations.

Slot analysis case study

Background: The BI team analysed the appointments for all mental health clinical roles across a PCN, to understand appointment availability and planning, how the appointments were being used, and appointment duration and DNA rate.

Findings: The analysis took two months and results were really positive. The findings, presented to the PCN in a user-friendly format, showed:

appointments for all staff were well-used, with a high volume of face-to-face slots
DNA rates were acceptable
the planned appointment duration of 29 minutes was inaccurate. Appointments were taking an average of 37.5 minutes, eight minutes more than planning allowed for

The findings helped the PCN’s practices improve their appointment mapping based on patient demand, and rethink their staff allocation to better meet that demand.

Contact us

If you think your practice would benefit from an appointment slot analysis, please get in touch: business.intelligence@onecare.org.uk

Dr Jacob Lee appointed as new GPCB chair

November 22, 2024NewsGrace Hield

Following a competitive interview process, Dr Jacob Lee has been appointed as the new chair of the GP Collaborative Board (GPCB), for a three-year term.

Jacob is a GP partner at Horfield Health Centre in North Bristol since 2018, and qualified at Southampton University in 2005. He is the locality clinical lead for North and West Bristol, and has a longstanding interest in promoting continuity of care and its benefits.

He will begin his new role on 1 December 2024. He takes over the role of chair from Dr Jon Hayes, who has led the GPCB for the last three years, and represented general practice on the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board since 2022.

Jacob said: “I am excited to be taking on the role of GPCB chair, and I’m looking forward to working with the GPCB members and wider system partners to improve patient care, and ensure general practice is at the forefront of the development of out of hospital care.”

Jon said: “I regret I was unsuccessful in securing re-appointment as Chair of the GPCB. While I am disappointed, I have said from the outset it is important for all of us to have the right senior leadership representing us at system level, and I am pleased I will be succeeded by Dr Jacob Lee. I have no doubt Jacob will excel in this role and will enjoy it as much as I (mostly) have. I’m sure you will join me in getting behind him and supporting him in this role.

“I would like to thank you all for your support during my three-year term. It has been a pleasure to serve the GP membership in this role and I am proud of what we have achieved to date. We are at an interesting point of evolution in general practice and wider primary care, and I look forward to witnessing the further successes of the GPCB from a comfortable seat in the auditorium.”

One Care and the GPCB would like to thank Jon for his exceptional hard work, leadership, and unwavering advocacy on behalf of all BNSSG general practice as chair of the GPCB.