Change is difficult. Changing behaviour is even more difficult. Persuading other people to change their behaviour is even more difficult still. Which is why PCNs are difficult.

The really difficult part of PCNs is that the main benefits come as a result of GPs changing how they work. PCNs have all recently been through the trials of working out how between them they are to cover the extended hours requirements that now fall on the network. The (relatively) easy route is to say everyone has to do their bit. The impact of this is that practices who were choosing not to do it, now have to “choose” to do it. So the impact of the Primary Care Network (so far) on those practices is that they are having to do more work.

At the other end of the spectrum, practices in a PCN work out how they can see each other’s patients. They create a “hub” to carry out extended hours on behalf of all the practices. They expand the remit of the hub beyond extended hours, and into seeing all the on the day demand from the practices across the network. The team seeing the on the day demand is multidisciplinary, led by a GP. The impact on the GPs in the PCN is that they have more time for routine appointments, and they experience some relief from the constant pressure of the daily demand.

The first option does not require GPs to change their clinical practice. They simply have to do more of the same in order to comply with the requirements of the PCN. In that sense it is “easy”, and is why many PCNs have gone down this route.

The second option requires a whole raft of changes. It means all the practices have to agree to the new way of working. It means practices have to trust their patients to be seen by clinicians from other practices. It means the way each practice delivers continuity of care has to change. It means the management of the new urgent care team needs to be agreed. It means when things go wrong practices have to work together to solve the problems as they arise. It requires strong leadership, trust between the practices and a willingness to make changes together.

In summary, it is an extremely difficult option to put into practice, and why most PCNs would have discounted it (or anything similarly disruptive) as an option without much consideration. The opportunity for significant gains is there, but the journey to achieve them is so difficult that they are not realised.

This, incidentally, is the reason many mergers have not made life any better for the GPs involved. Instead of delivering “economies of scale” they have simply led to twice the problems and twice the number of people to engage when any decision needs to be made. In the same way that mergers are not a solution in themselves, but rather create the opportunity for improvement, so PCNs are not a solution for general practice in themselves, but rather create an opportunity for things to be better.

PCNs are an opportunity, but an opportunity that is difficult for practices to exploit. PCNs are difficult because change is difficult, and for PCNs to make a real difference to general practice, real changes need to be made: changes to the way practices work together; changes to the way individual practices in the PCN operate; and changes to the way individual GPs (including those that may not want to make the change) operate.