Tag Archives: BNSSG

One Care releases IIF tracking dashboard for primary care networks

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One Care’s businesses intelligence team have developed a new dashboard to help general practice in BNSSG monitor progress against national targets from the Investment and Impact Fund (IIF).

The IIF is an incentive scheme that rewards primary care networks (PCNs) for delivering high quality care to patients, improving population health and delivering priority objectives from the NHS Long Term Plan.

It measures PCNs’ performance against a set of targets relating to health inequalities, personalised, preventative and anticipatory care, medicines optimisation, and environmental sustainability.

The One Care dashboard has been developed to help PCN managers and clinical leads track how their PCN is performing against these targets, and what level of income they can expect to receive as a result.

The team is also developing a practice-level dashboard, enable visibility of how each practice in a PCN is contributing.

Rhys Lewis, Head of Digital at One Care, said: “The PCN DES (of which IIF is part) is an important source of funding for general practice. A typical PCN in England could earn around £100,000 , so it’s important our PCNs have an easy way to see how they’re doing, and identify where the most cost-effective action can be taken to maximise this income.

“Feedback so far has been really positive. PCNs can see its value and understand what it can do for them. We’re currently developing the next iteration, which will help PCNs see where they can expect to be tracking towards the end of the financial year, and how their resources are best focussed to deliver the maximum benefit for their patients and maximise income.”

If you would like to know more about the dashboard, or have any feedback, please email business.intelligence@onecare.org.uk

GPCB sets out principles for working in BNSSG healthcare system

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The General Practice Collaborative Board (GPCB) formed in 2020 to strengthen the voice of 24/7 general practice within Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucester (BNSSG).

The GPCB brings together all general practices within BNSSG, Avon Local Medical Committee and BrisDoc which provides the out-of-hours GP service. Hosted by One Care, the GP federation for BNSSG, the GPCB ensures the voice of general practice remains a ‘golden thread’ and is robustly represented within the new Integrated Care System (ICS).

The ICS was established on a statutory basis in July 2022, and brings together partners from health and social care, local authorities and the Integrated Care Board, which replaced the CCG in July 2022.

By bringing these partners together to work collaboratively, the ICS puts patients at the very heart of the system and builds services around their needs.

General practice is the bedrock for the health and care system, and deals with the majority of health interactions through multidisciplinary teams of GPs, nurse practitioners and other clinical and non-clinical staff members working within surgeries. GP surgeries care for patients from cradle to grave, and are uniquely placed to build trusting relationships with their patients.

General practice involvement is therefore essential to the success of an integrated care system. The GPCB has developed some key principles around how general practice works within the Integrated Care System in BNSSG. These will enable general practice to act as an equal partner in our system partnership, and will lead to proper general practice engagement in decision-making across healthcare in our area.

The principles the GPCB works to are:

  • The GPCB is the go-to place for the system to engage with general practice
  • General practice at-scale work should be funded by the system
  • General practice should be involved in all system programmes from the outset
  • Each programme requires programme management, as well as clinical and non-clinical input
  • General practice engagement in system work will be prioritised in line with GPCB priorities

By following these principles, we ensure the expertise and experience of general practice is involved in any design of pathways and services. The principles also ensure voices are heard from across all general practice, the right expertise is found, and any progress made is shared back across all 76 practices in the area. We are working closely with our ICS partners to embed these new ways of working across everything we do in our system.

Dr Katrina Boutin, GP in Inner City and East Bristol and the Vice-Chair of the GPCB, said “Agreeing the principles of general practice engagement with our partners is an important step in partnership working in the new Integrated Care System. This is so we can ensure all partners are working consistently and collaboratively together to support our local populations, improve services and reduce inequalities.

Currently the GPCB is working within the system on several programmes: digital strategy; mass vaccinations; outpatients and urgent care. These programmes are steered by committees comprising clinical and non-clinical general practice representatives with a specialist interest in that area, and led by a clinical lead and programme manager.

These programmes are supported by One Care business intelligence, communications and digital expertise to enable change management within practices.

Successes to date include: coordinating the successful general practice aspect of the Covid vaccination programme; working with secondary care on outpatients processes to support the patient journey; and developing an urgent care strategy that supports patients being seen in the right place at the right time.

 

Work ramping up for autumn vaccination drive

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Preparations are underway for this autumn’s flu and Covid-19 vaccinations in general practice across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG).

The vaccination programme is a huge undertaking, with around 345,000 people in BNSSG eligible to be vaccinated. There will be around 4,000 staff and volunteers involved in delivering vaccines this year, many of whom will need refresher training.

It will see general practice working in partnership with acute hospitals, community pharmacy and mass vaccination centres to reach as much of the eligible population as possible.

The programme will focus on those most vulnerable to Covid-19 and flu first, starting with health and social care staff, care home residents, those who are housebound, and the clinically vulnerable.

Ruth Hughes, One Care’s Programme Manager for PCN-based vaccinations, said: “The mass vaccination programme for flu and Covid-19 is a big commitment for general practices, so it’s fantastic all 20 of BNSSG’s primary care networks are taking part. Their involvement, plus that of our partners in community pharmacy and the mass vaccination centres, is crucial and means people shouldn’t need to travel far for their vaccination.

“The programme is also a huge opportunity to maximise the population’s protection against flu and Covid-19. We have vaccines for both that are safe to administer at the same time – including a new version of the Covid-19 vaccine.

“Our hope is that we will be able to offer everyone who’s eligible a vaccination before Christmas.”

 

Voice of general practice strengthened as BrisDoc joins the GPCB

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The General Practice Collaborative Board (GPCB) has welcomed BrisDoc as its newest voting member.

The GPCB is the established representative at-scale decision-making body for general practice in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG), and is formally recognised as the “go to” place for the system to work and engage with general practice at scale.

Following the annual review of the GPCB’s terms of reference, the Board looked at its membership and invited BrisDoc to join.

BrisDoc joins representatives from the Primary Care Networks, the six GP localities, Avon Local Medical Committee, and One Care (the GP Federation) as members of the GPCB.

BrisDoc is an employee-owned social enterprise, which has been delivering NHS primary care services for over 20 years, including the Integrated Urgent Care Service for BNSSG. It also provides a number of GP practices and Bristol’s Homeless Health Service.

Dr Jon Hayes, Chair of the GPCB, said: “We’re delighted to welcome BrisDoc to full voting membership of the GPCB. Having BrisDoc as a member strengthens our role, as it enables us to properly represent both in and out of hours general practice in our area. It enables us to work more cohesively across 24/7 general practice for the benefit of our patients. We hope joining the GPCB will also strengthen BrisDoc’s voice in the local healthcare system.”

Dr Kathy Ryan, BrisDoc’s Medical Director, said: “BrisDoc is delighted to become a full voting member of the GPCB. Uniting the voice of 24/7 general practice in BNSSG will provide a strong platform for consolidation, development and innovation in primary care in the new Integrated Care System.”

One Care service helps practices save time on referrals

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One Care’s Digital Support team has been helping practices across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire clean up their referral resources.

Since the introduction of a centrally managed document hub, Resource Publisher, in August 2021, many practices found they had old or duplicate referral forms stored on their systems.

To solve this problem, One Care began offering a form consolidation service to practices. The service sees One Care’s Digital Support team remotely accessing practices’ systems and archiving the out of date and duplicate forms.

Stephanie Hatton, One Care’s Digital Consultant said: “This service brings a lot of benefits for practices. It saves clinicians and administration staff time, ensuring they are only using the latest forms so they can be confident the referrals they send have the necessary information.

“Because we can do the work in the background, practices can keep using their systems as normal, and their administration staff can work on other things.

“So far, we’ve delivered the service to 30 of our practices, and the feedback has been positive. We’d love to help any other practices who’d like it.”

The consolidation service is available to all One Care practices in BNSSG as part of their subscription. If you would like to find out more, please contact digital@onecare.org.uk

 

 

 

General practice information campaign launches today

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Your GP surgery team cares for you – that’s the message from our new public communication campaign, launching today.

The campaign aims to explain the changes in general practice in recent years, and what they mean for the public.

It showcases how GP surgeries continue to provide the same level of care they always have, and are working hard to ensure everyone receives the right support when they need it, whether that’s a face-to-face appointment, a phone consultation or a video call.

It also aims to highlight the range of healthcare professionals now based at local surgeries, including nurse practitioners, clinical pharmacists, and physiotherapists. It explains their roles, what they can do for patients, and how they work as part of the general practice team.

The campaign is being run by One Care and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (BNSSG ICB).

Ruth Taylor, Chief Executive for One Care, said: “General practice has seen a number of significant changes recently, including the introduction of digital and online services, and the integration of different healthcare professionals into general practice.

“We want to help the public understand how their GP surgery team is here for them throughout their lives, and how their GP surgery provides them with proactive, personalised and convenient care.”

As well as activity across social and traditional media, the campaign features a microsite with information about the changes in general practice, and explanations about the roles of the different healthcare professionals patients may see at their GP surgery.

Later this month, campaign adverts featuring staff and patients from practices across BNSSG will start to appear on buses across the area.

For more information about the campaign, or to find out how you can support it, please email enquiries@onecare.org.uk.

New Integrated Care Board assumes responsibility for NHS in BNSSG

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Today marks an exciting step in the provision of healthcare in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG), as a new organisation takes responsibility for the day to day running of the NHS in the area.

Following the dissolution of BNSSG Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the BNSSG Integrated Care Board (ICB) will now arrange the provision of NHS services, manage the NHS budget, and look after the health needs of the area’s population.

ICBs were legally established across England on 1 July 2022, while clinical commissioning groups were abolished.

In BNSSG, the ICB forms part of the area’s Integrated Care Partnership (ICP). The ICP is formed between the ICB and BNSSG’s three local authorities.

It brings together a broad range of partners – including the local voluntary sector and community groups – and sets strategy to meet the population’s health, care and wellbeing needs.

The Integrated Care Partnership and Integrated Care Board are key elements in the Integrated Care System (ICS) for BNSSG.

The ICS comprises 10 partner organisations, including the three local authorities, NHS trusts, the new ICB, and community and general practice healthcare providers. It is also known as the Healthier Together Partnership.

Although Healthier Together has been active as a partnership for some time, it now has legal status after the Health and Care Act 2022 formalised new arrangements to ensure ICSs become statutory entities from 1 July 2022.

The ICS partners are:

Senior representatives from these organisations have seats on the ICB board. General practice’s voting member will be Dr Jonathan Hayes, Chair of the GP Collaborative Board. Ruth Taylor, Chief Executive of One Care, will also attend in a non-voting capacity.

Within the ICS sit six locality partnerships. These operate on a smaller scale within the ICS, responding to the unique needs of their local populations.

The locality partnerships in BNSSG are South Gloucestershire, North and West Bristol, Inner City and East Bristol, South Bristol, Woodspring, and Weston, Worle and Villages. Locality partnerships include general practice, social care, community services, hospitals, voluntary sector, and mental health services – working alongside local people and communities to improve health and wellbeing.

One Care Chief Executive Ruth Taylor said: “This is a really exciting development. One Care and the GP Collaborative Board are looking forward to working more closely with our partners in the new ICS. We are excited to attend the first meeting of the Integrated Care Board today, ensuring effective general practice representation in leadership discussions.”

New app to boost staff sharing across BNSSG

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One Care is working with health system partners on an exciting new project to improve collaborative working across primary and community care in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG).

The project – known as the collaborative bank – will enable sharing of staff across primary and community care in BNSSG. It aims to 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. It will also enable a collaborative approach to using our limited staff resources where they are most needed.

The process will be managed digitally through a web and phone-based app, which has been developed by a company called Ryalto. Ryalto has experience of running similar projects elsewhere in the country, although this is the first time such a project is being led by general practice.

Through the app, staff will be able to book shifts at other practices and in community care settings, in addition to their core place of work. Available shifts can be filtered by competency or by role to give as much flexibility, choice and opportunity as possible for both employers and staff.

It is hoped the system will reduce the need to use expensive agency staff, which will reduce costs for the employer. Additionally, the staff member’s pay rate will follow them into the alternative place of work and they will continue to be paid by their usual employer.

The project is currently in the customisation phase, with practices and other partners providing feedback about their local requirements to Ryalto.

This feedback will support Ryalto to tailor the app and its functionality to the needs of local staff and employers for the best results.

Jim Hodgson, One Care’s Programme Manager for urgent care, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Ryalto and colleagues from BNSSG primary and community care to develop this solution. As a health and care system, we need to address the 21st century workforce challenges we are now facing; it’s clear that 21st century technology will play a big role in solving these problems.”

One Care tool underpins successful cholesterol management pilot

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One Care recently supported a successful collaborative pilot project alongside the West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW) to identify patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) who could benefit from better lipid management.

CVD causes a quarter of all deaths in the UK and is the largest cause of premature mortality in deprived areas.

Reducing cholesterol through improved lipid management is a key way to address CVD. The project aimed to do this by making sure patients could be treated with the right medicines. In the pilot, these medicines included: High Intensity Statins (HIST), Ezetimibe, and PCSK9 inhibitors.  The NICE-approved lipid management clinical pathway has since been updated to also include Inclisiran and Bempedoic Acid.

To enable GPs to find the patients who would benefit most, One Care’s business intelligence and digital support teams developed and ran a CVD search tool. Over a year, they supported 10 practices across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire to assess more than 149,000 patients and find those with existing CVD who had elevated lipid levels.

Using the tool, they then refined the data using criteria for PCSK9 inhibitor therapy – which treats very high cholesterol – to find eligible patients.

The pilot identified 444 patients who were eligible for medication reviews and referred seven of them to secondary care for PCSK9i therapy.

More broadly, primary care in BNSSG now has a sustainable, standardised way to improve the lipid management of high-risk CVD patients.

Colette Buckley, Head of Digital Support at One Care, said: “We’re really pleased to have been able to bring our digital expertise to the pilot. Delivering the tool has helped ensure  patients across our region are taking the most effective CVD medication, and provided a valuable pathway that can be used more widely in future. Enabling this kind of collaboration and helping to develop ways to help general practice and patients is at the heart of what we do.”

The pilot, led by Dr Paula Rostek, was part of the West of England Academic Health Science Network’s Rapid Uptake Products programme.

Clare Evans, Deputy Director of Service and System Transformation at the West of England AHSN said: “As a result of this pilot project, and the One Care tool, a sustainable pathway has been developed for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire to optimise the lipid management of high-risk patients in primary care. This will support a standardised, evidence-based approach to manage those with established cardiovascular disease. Delivered alongside the pressures of the pandemic, the work of everybody involved is to be commended.”

Following the pilot, One Care will shortly launch the second phase of the tool. A second tool, to help identify patients who may have undiagnosed Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH), will also be offered. More information about these tools is available here.

One year milestone for the NHS Covid-19 Vaccination Programme

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8 December 2021: Today is the one-year anniversary of the first Covid-19 vaccination to be given in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) at Southmead hospital. The milestone comes on the day that people aged over 40, along with frontline health and care staff and those in high risk groups, are able to have their life-saving Covid booster vaccination three months after their second dose, brought forward from six months.

Since 8 December 2020, our local vaccination programme has delivered 1,700,299 vaccinations, including 21,312 to our most vulnerable populations through our Maximising Uptake outreach programme. Our teams have worked tirelessly to vaccinate people against Covid-19 at 53 GP-run clinics, two large scale vaccination centres, 14 community pharmacy sites, three hospital clinics, in parks, in shops, at their place of work and in their homes.

Geeta Iyer, Clinical Lead for the BNSSG Vaccination Programme, said: “I am awed by the progress we have made in the Vaccination Programme in such a short space of time. In the past 12 months our programme has evolved from a highly clinical process with early vaccinations being administered in hospitals and GP surgeries to our position, today, with teams regularly vaccinating in workplaces, on the street and in community settings across BNSSG.

“It’s been quite a journey for everyone involved across our healthcare system and I want to say a huge ‘thank you’, on behalf of the BNSSG Vaccination Programme, to everyone who has been involved in this life-saving Programme. You really have made a difference.”

99-year-old Jack Vokes from North Somerset was the first person to receive his Covid-19 vaccination in BNSSG at Southmead hospital. One year on from being vaccinated, he said: “I can’t believe it’s been a year. I feel very lucky. I’d like to thank everyone involved very much for what they’re doing. God bless you all and have a very happy Christmas.”

With increasing numbers of confirmed Omicron cases across the country, vaccination is critical to bolster our defences against this new variant. Please have your first, second or booster jab, without delay. People can get their vaccine by booking online through the National Booking Service or by calling 119, at a local clinic (visit www.grabajab.net for details) and GP practices are also inviting those who are eligible.

To mark the anniversary, Dr. Neil Kerfoot and Practice Manager Robyn Clark from Kingswood Health Centre featured on BBC Radio Bristol this morning to discuss the past 12-months and highlight how well everyone has united to achieve such a high level of vaccinations.

Radio Bristol also caught up with 105-year-old care home resident Edna, who spoke about her experiences of getting her first and second vaccinations, along with her booster jab, and the positive difference they’ve made on her life.