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Can GP practices work in closer collaboration with the local Acute Trust and yet not lose their independence? Ben talks to Dr Berge Balian, a long-standing GP who was appointed Associate Medical Director for Primary Care at Yeovil District Hospital and is one of the clinical leaders for a Primary and Acute Care System (PACS) model. He tells Ben how GP and hospital services have come together, how GPs were convinced to support this new model and how the whole system has benefited.

Show Notes

Berge has been a GP for 20 years with an interest in local GP politics (1mins 12secs)

The local hospital recruits a GP onto their Board (1mins 57secs)

An application for Vanguard status looking at closer integration between acute and primary care (2mins 25secs)

Getting GP colleagues on board (2mins 42secs)

Collaborative working doesn’t mean more work for General Practice (4mins 17secs)

Sharing a vision (5mins 10 secs)

Developing the vision as if you were starting from scratch (6mins 06secs)

Radical changes to the way General Practice is configured around population health (7mins 12secs)

Integrating health and social care across Yeovil (8mins 40secs)

GPs do not feel threatened (9mins 28secs)

Practices look at merging with the hospital (10mins 06secs)

Symphony Healthcare Services (SHS) is established as an “operational organisation” (11mins 05secs)

Contracting arrangements (12mins 06secs)

SHS is owned by the Trust but is arms-length and led by GPs (12mins 43secs)

What motivates the practices to join? (13mins 37secs)

The three pillars of integration (14mins 39secs)

Enhanced Primary Care and appointing 54 Health Coaches (15mins 54secs)

New clinical roles in surgeries (17mins 16secs)

Developing the programme in the future – the voice of primary care (18mins 14secs)

Increased investment in primary care (19mins 45secs)

Three bits of advice for other parties (21mins 38secs)