How can CCGs provide the kind of support that General Practices need to manage the problems they face now and in the future? In this blog, Ben Gowland suggests five key actions they can take.

There is tremendous variation across the country in the levels of support different CCGs are providing for General Practice. Here are the five most impactful actions CCGs can take to support General Practice locally.

One – Introduce a Single Contract to Uplift funding for General Practice

Bolton CCG has invested an additional £3m into General Practice and provided a guaranteed minimum income per practice. By both bringing together the different funding streams for General Practice and investing additional resources CCGs can create an uplift of core funding that will make a real difference to the problems GP practices are experiencing. Listen here to hear how Bolton CCG made this happen locally.

Two – Support the introduction of new roles into General Practice

As recruitment of GPs into practices becomes increasingly difficult, GP practices are being forced to look at the introduction of new roles into practice, such as advanced nurse practitioners, paramedics, pharmacists, physiotherapists, mental health workers and physicians associates. CCGs can support and accelerate the successful introduction of these roles by:

• Establishing the local availability of each type of role
• Bringing together into one place the additional funding available to support practices with these different roles
• Providing information about the availability of local training, e.g. prescribing courses for pharmacists, and information on implementation issues such as indemnity
• Creating local groups whereby clinical staff taking on these new roles can gain support from each other, and share best practice

Three – Support the establishment of a local Locum GP Chambers

GP locums make up nearly a quarter of the GP workforce, according to the National Association of Sessional GPs (NASGP). GP practices spend inordinate amounts of time finding GP locums, and often have to pay exorbitant rates. Encouraging the local locum GPs to establish a chambers will improve the availability of locum GPs, improve the quality, and reduce the cost. While CCGs cannot set them up directly, they can facilitate their development locally, for example by identifying and working with potential leads for the chambers, and establishing the demand from practices to support the business case for their establishment.

Four – Help local GP practices explore the opportunities of working at scale

Our Health Partnership is the largest ‘super-practice’ in the country. 32 practices in Birmingham came together to establish a single partnership, covering a population of 280,000. The origins of this came from the CCG providing some facilitation support and opportunities for local GPs to come together to explore what working together at scale might mean for them. Hear more about the origins of Our Health Partnership here and here.

Five – Facilitate the development of partnerships between GP practices and other local providers

Joint working between GP practices and other health providers, such as community trusts, acute trusts and local councils have enabled some GP practices to develop new staffing models, introduce new systems for managing on-the-day demand, and create an innovative approach to managing estates. The joint work between Southern Health and the practices in South Hampshire is a good example (find out more here). What GP practices lack is an understanding of the enthusiasm of different local organisations for this work, what type of joint work they are prepared/keen to consider, and who the best contact point within each organisation for practices is. CCGs can establish this information and make it easily accessible to practices, and then actively support joint initiatives as they develop.