1. Draft Primary Care Strategy 2016-21
Donna Macarthur
Director of Primary Care and Integration

2. Primary care is the foundation upon which healthcare has been provided since the NHS was established and remains one of the UK’s most important and valued public services.
Primary care accounts for nine out of every ten patient contacts within the NHS and is recognised across the world as one of the most cost-effective, high quality means to deliver care.

3. Primary care, and general practice in particular, however are currently facing significant challenges, including:
An increasing and aging population with more complex health needs
Increasing patient expectations
Increased demand for GP appointments
Increasing workforce pressures, such as an ageing workforce and insufficient trainees to meet future need and demands
Constrained financial resources

4. The Primary Strategy sets out Walsall CCG’s Vision for Primary Care for , focusing on general practice.
It reflects the ambitions and priorities of recent National Planning Guidance including the GP Forward View (GPFV)

5. It reflects an ambitious programme of large-scale change which is needed to address practice sustainability and variation and inconsistency of primary care services. It also recognizes the importance of primary care to our entire health system.

6. GP care
A national benchmarking tool shows that 73% of Walsall practices are either rated as higher achieving or achieving practices

7. National GP Survey data suggests 76% of patients are satisfied with overall experience of making an appointment in Walsall which is better then the national average
But
the range in Walsall goes from 98% to 36%

8. Our Vision
We aim to build on the strong foundation of general practice in Walsall to provide high quality primary medical care for local people with the aim of improving the health of the community and to reduce inequalities
We will see practices working together, alongside teams from the community, secondary care, social care and the voluntary sector to allow patients to:
access the right clinician at the right time,
support patients with the most complex needs
help more patients receive care out of hospital

9. The strategy sets out what needs to happen
transform general practice including plans for practices to work together so they are better placed to deliver high quality care for patients
implement actions that can improve the sustainability and accessibility of primary care including extended opening hours 7 days a week
transform the workforce - new roles to be deployed in general practice including practice based pharmacists, Care navigators and medical assistants
move from a traditional form of consultation , to one which makes greater use of the online practice consultation software system
transform primary care estates so GPs can operate out of modern facilities and make best use of information technology

10. Access
There is no “one size fits all” model of good access. Patients concerned about a new health problem want to see a doctor as quickly as possible, while those with a long term condition may require more frequent, longer consultations, and value seeing the same clinician, so they need to be able to book appointments in advance.

11. We will
Ensure practices are open 5 days a week from 8 to 6.30 with no half day closing
Ensure routine and urgent appointments are available on mornings and afternoons
We will ensure primary care access 7 days a week - Achieve 100% coverage of extended access (evening and weekend appointments) by no later than April 2019
Provide information to patients in a format that meets their individual needs,
Adopt and exploit technology to sign post patients to the right service or clinician
Ensure practices promote online services including appointment booking, prescription ordering, viewing medical records and and telephone consultations.
Commit to providing patients with extended evening and weekend appointments, including a mix of pre-bookable and same day appointments. We will work with our patients, practices and localities to design these services.
Improve access to mental health services for children, adult and older adult service users through delivery of transformational service changes.

12. Workforce
To meet the demands in practice a number of new and extended roles are appearing – we will be supporting practices to consider these
Healthcare assistants (HCA)/clinical assistants: provide clinical support for GPs to enable them to allocate more time to patients with complex problems.
Health and wellbeing coordinators: enable patients to maintain their health and wellbeing and improve self-management of their condition.
Physician associates: diagnose and manage conditions in general practice and hospital settings, with the supervision of medical practitioners.
Care coordinators/navigators: provide a central coordination role on behalf of the patient, working with their wider care team covering health, social care, voluntary and other local services.