February 7, 2025
GPCB 2024 round up and 2025 priorities
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.
GPCB 2024 round up and 2025 priorities
