Primary Care

What we said*

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Healthy Ambitions highlighted the importance of strong primary care across all clinical pathway groups. Primary Care is the first port of call for the vast majority of service users in the region and accounts for over 90% of patient contacts with the NHS. The importance of primary care in the orginal Healthy Ambitions work led to the establishment of a ‘primary care think-tank’ with the same status as the eight clinical pathway groups. Our aim is to see universally high quality primary care that is flexible to respond to patients’ needs, regardless of where, when or to whom they are delivered.

While there are numerous examples of good practice in primary care across the region, there is also evidence of unacceptable variations in quality, access and patient experience of services.

The ‘primary care think-tank’ put forward a range of proposals for improving quality and tackling variation in primary care across the region.

These included:

  • Strengthening commissioning of primary care to maximise the benefit from the levers to improve quality
  • Supporting greater public and patient involvement in services and greater choice
  • Improving the availability of information to allow comparison and benchmarking, to support more informed commissioning decisions, and to allow patients to make more informed choices.

*Full details can be found at: www.healthyambitions.co.uk/resource_list.html.

What we have done

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Since publication of Healthy Ambitions we have:

  • Delivered Phase 1 of the primary care dataset (Health Intelligence Practice Profiles). These profiles contain a range of practice level information on the practice demographics, quality and accessibility of services, and allow benchmarking of performance with similar practices. The profiles are already being used locally to inform discussions between PCTs, practice based commissioning consortia and general practices. Work has recently begun on Phase 2 of the work which will build in a range of new information, including prescribing data and commissioned activity.
    Profiles can be accessed here: http://www.yhpho.org.uk/primarycareintro.aspx

David Wild – PEC Chair, Calderdale PCT.

'The presentation used in these profiles really makes the data come alive, and we believe this information should be used to support all commissioning choices. We have arranged a series of local events to promote and explain the information.'
  • Increased primary care capacity, access and quality through the Equitable Access in Primary Care Programme. The new GP practices will provide extended opening hours and the new health centres will be open 7 days a week from 8am until 8pm. The Health Centres will provide access to a GP for registered and non-registered patients who pre-book appointments as well as for patients who simply want to walk in and wait to be seen by a GP in some of the most deprived and under-doctored areas of Yorkshire and the Humber. By the end of 2009, fourteen new GP-led Health Centres and ten new GP practices will be open for business.

What we will do next

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There has been good progress in improving primary care locally. However we believe that there is a need for concerted effort to further build on the strengths and tackle variation in primary care, in particular:

  • Driving world class commissioning for primary care locally, so that primary care services are commissioned with the same rigour and robustness as other services
  • Applying the national primary and community care strategy to Y&H, and make best use of this to improve services locally
  • Supporting practice based commissioning so that clinicians are able to drive improvements for their patients across the whole spectrum of care.

PCTs will be responsible for taking this agenda forward, and in doing so they will be supported by a region wide primary care delivery board. This will be chaired by Rob Webster, CE at NHS Calderdale, with clinical support. The aim of the board will be to gather and build on best practice locally and translate national policy into practical advice for PCTs, to oversee the development of PBC within the region, and to hold PCTs to account for delivering improvement in primary care. This board will be made up of PCT managers and clinicians, and report to Chief Executives.*

Who will ensure that this happens?

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Annette Laban, SHA Director of Performance and Delivery, will have responsibility for overall delivery of the primary care recommendations.

*For further details see chapter on governance