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In the second of his audio blogs, Ben Gowland argues that General Practice really needs help in navigating a route through the post-GP Forward View world. Read more of Ben’s blogs on our website at https://ockham.healthcare/category/the-general-practice-blog/ Let us know what you think of the audio blogs at ben@ockham.healthcare
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Ben talks to Dr Maureen Baker, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners about the future of collaborative working and the role of General Practice in the integration agenda. In a wide-ranging discussion following the recent publication of an RCGP report on the subject, she also touches on the GP Forward View, the future of the GP partner model and the idea of practices working at scale.
Show Notes
Maureen explains the rationale behind the RCGP report on collaborative working (43secs)
The report exists for GPs, CCGs or any local body leading integration (1mins 42secs)
The role of GP, as expert medical generalist, is pivotal to integration (2mins 25secs)
GPs don’t need to drive integration – but it won’t work without them (3mins 18secs)
Is “integration” just another burden for GPs? (4mins 49secs)
The support that practices should be given to enable integration (6secs 30secs)
The synchrony between this report and the General Practice Forward View (7mins 07secs)
Good evidence about new roles including practice based pharmacists (8mins 09secs)
The role of mental health workers in General Practice (9mins 14secs)
What will integration mean for the traditional model of General Practice? (11mins)
A range of differing models (13mins 16secs)
Will all practices need to get bigger? (13mins 42secs)
Building on the strengths of General Practice (14mins 14secs)
One size doesn’t fit all (15mins 31secs)
Maureen’s advice for practices (15mins 59secs)
Making integration work is dependent on local issues (16mins 40secs)
What’s in it for our practice and our health economy (17mins 44secs)
The RCGP report entitled The Future of Collaborative Working can be found here.
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This week we are trying something new and would like your view on whether we continue. This is our first audio blog in which Ben Gowland has just four minutes to argue that rather than sitting in CCGs, GP leaders should be out supporting the development of core general practice.
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Wow! What an inspiring podcast we have this week as Ben talks to pharmacist Karen Acott. Karen was the country’s first ever pharmacist partner in a GP practice in 2004 and is now Chairman of a major GP federation in Devon. She tells Ben about the value to a practice of employing a pharmacist and provides inspiration to all professionals working in primary care.
Show Notes
Karen explains how she started out on her career (43secs)
The first pharmacist to be appointed as a partner (2mins 30secs)
Karen describes how she created the new role of pharmacist partner (2mins 49secs)
Advice for practices thinking of appointing a pharmacist (3mins 57secs)
Selling the business case for investing in a pharmacist (5mins 14secs)
The advantages of independent prescribers (6secs 20secs)
Training independent prescribers (6mins 58secs)
Independent prescribers are out there (7mins 33secs)
Karen was Pharmacy Professional of the Year in 2012 (8mins 08secs)
Cuts to community pharmacy and the Pharmacy Integration Fund (8mins 30secs)
The uneasy relationship between community pharmacies and GP practices (11mins 07secs)
Karen is chair of an 82 practice GP federation in Devon (12mins 47secs)
What is the federation delivering? (14mins 24secs)
Operating at scale in the future (15mins 18secs)
Advice for other pharmacists (16mins 20secs)
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With the Bolton Quality Contract, Bolton CCG has invested an additional £3m in General Practice and provided a guaranteed income per patient. In turn this has helped them to tackle some of their most pressing problems including access and the patient experience through incentives for the delivery of a set of agreed standards. The contract has been a huge success and effectively funded itself in the first year. Ben talks to Su Long, the Accountable Officer at Bolton CCG, to understand more about how the contract was developed, how it works and how its success is being measured.
Show Notes
Su explains how the new contract in Bolton came about (58secs)
The local GPs are engaged in developing the contract and setting the new standards (2mins 02secs)
The standards aim to improve access (2mins 57secs)
The Bolton Quality Contract: changing the way practices are funded to incentivise achievement of the standards (3mins 54secs)
How does it work with QOF and enhanced services? (4mins 47secs)
What about the practices that were already funded at a higher level? (5secs 27secs)
For how long does the contract run? (6mins 39secs)
How is the new contract funded? (7mins 02secs)
The new contract aims to pay for itself in the first year (7mins 25secs)
The Board recognised that investing in General Practice was essential (7mins 55secs)
The process took just nine months to establish (8mins 38secs)
How is the additional funding paid to practices (9mins 50secs)
What should measure and how? (10mins 32secs)
Payments come in each quarter (12mins 15secs)
Data is an issue (12mins 46secs)
40 standards is perhaps too many! (13mins 29secs)
What were the results in the first year? (13mins 42secs)
….60,000 additional appointment slots in primary care…and more (14mins 05secs)
…improvements in the Friends and Family test, prescribing and take-up of screening… (14mins 48secs)
…successfully improving capacity (16mins 04secs)
How the practices have responded (16mins 57secs)
The standard setting is very robust (17mins 40 secs)
The investment has paid for itself (18mins 50secs)
Reviewing and developing the contract (19mins 06secs)
Advice for other CCGs (20mins 04secs)
Your CCG colleagues might think you are mad to take the risk! (20mins 45secs)
Investment in capacity in General Practice is essential for the whole health system (21mins 27secs)
A paper describing the Bolton Quality Contract in some detail can be found here