In January 2019, NHS England published the Long Term, Plan setting out healthcare priorities for the next 10 years and a 5-year plan of changes to the NHS service model with the aim of:
- Boosting out of hospital care to dissolve the divide between primary and community health services
- Redesigning and reducing pressure on emergency hospital services
- More personalised care to help people gain more control over their health when they need it
- Digitally-enabled primary and outpatient care
- Increasing focus on population health and local partnerships through Integrated Care Systems
The Long Term Plan was followed by the Investment and Evolution publication – a five-year framework for GP contract reform to support the delivery of the Long Term Plan. This outlined a commitment to invest £4.5 billion in primary medical and community services, including the development of Primary Care Networks. Over the next 5 years, the funding will cover demand pressures, workforce expansion and new services to meet goals.
As we move forwards and into the new NHS landscape of Integrated Care Systems, we will continue to deliver resilient and co-ordinated services that strengthen primary care for a stronger local NHS.
Our key areas of work for the next year will focus on:
- Delivering responsive and accessible resilience services to practices, to support them with service continuity to meet workforce gaps and surges in demand.
- Working with PCNs to support delivery of the Network Contract DES and to facilitate the transfer of Extended Access Service delivery.
- Working with Federation partners to provide at-scale primary care services, and to support the Integrated Care System.
- Working with Provider Collaborative partners to develop integrated services that enable patients to access care out of hospital.