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In this episode we hear about Northumbria Primary Care (NPC), a network of seven GP practices formed in 2015 across Northumberland and North Tyneside. The “twist” is that NPC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northumbria NHS Foundation Trust, the local acute trust, and that all the GPs are salaried. Ben is joined by NPC’s Medical Director Dr Nigel Twelves and Dr Lily Lamb, a GP and their Education Lead. Nigel and Lily explain how the model works, how it benefits patients and GPs and how the relationship with the acute trust has developed and is developing.

Show Notes

Northumbria Primary Care explained (1:04)

Practices coming together to share support (3:10)

GPs approach the acute trust (4:30)

Seven practices and 45,000 patients (4:56)

Huge geographical area (5:29)

Working in the new model (6:03)

The salaried model versus the partnership model (7:10)

Practices are individual entities with sub-contracts to Northumbria Primary Care (8:43)

Clinical and Management Executive to support governance (10:01)

The over-arching Board reporting to the parent company: the Foundation Trust (10:37)

What it feels like for GPs (11:43)

GP workload has reduced (12:43)

Workforce benefits of working with the Foundation Trust (14:17)

Minimising variance and adopting single models (15:39)

Working with secondary care consultants (16:57)

Has care to patients improved? (17:27)

Impact on GP recruitment and retention (19:31)

Is the model developing? (20:35)

Future aspirations and growth (22:22)

Finding out more (23:41)

The Northumbria Primary Care website is available here.