Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB has unveiled further detail on its planned care model overhaul, including a central patient ‘helpdesk’ and a shift of funding towards general practice.
An updated draft plan said it will invest up to £205m into the radical overhaul, which will also see new neighbourhood hubs being introduced to bring together general practice and other services.
The ICB said the plans will mean an increase in funding spent on primary care to 24.6% by 2028/29 – up from 22.6% in the current financial year.
It was revealed in October that the ICB was looking for an ‘IT partner’ to create a ‘digital front door’, as part of wider plans aiming to move care out of hospital.
The new documents say this will take the form of a new ‘nerve centre’, which will have a patient helpdesk serving one million people in the area, in a bid to save GP staff time spent dealing with patient requests.
The overhaul also includes:
- 15 to 20 local neighbourhood hubs, each serving 30,000 to 70,000 patients, ‘bringing together existing services’ such as GP practices, district nurses, care workers, physiotherapists, palliative care and mental health
- Six ‘community super hubs’, looking after 150,000 to 200,000 patients each, and including out-of-hours GP services, pharmacy, community diagnostics, speciality out-patients and ‘simple day surgical services’.
The plan said: ‘It will create a “no wrong door” patient helpdesk designed to help callers with a range of queries such as where they are in a referral process or waiting list, releasing time for GP practice staff who would otherwise deal with this.
‘For example, where patients are unsure what is happening with their referral for an out-patient appointment or hospital procedure, helpdesk staff will use access to appropriate levels of primary, community and secondary care information systems to advise, and where appropriate point patients to waiting well information and support services.
‘This will save time for GP practice staff and through centralising a function currently replicated in each individual provider, create productivity and efficiency gains.’
The ICB added that the plan is ‘intentionally high-level’ and it will serve as the ICB’s commissioning intentions for 2025-28.
Under the plans, patients would continue to use existing points of contact, such as calling an ambulance or 111 for urgent needs, but for healthcare professionals there would be ‘a single point of access for clinical advice, guidance and onward services’ within the ‘nerve centre’.
The ICB is planning to invest between £180m and £205m on this overhaul in the next five years.
The document added: ‘In summary, assuming a five year funding settlement based on flat cash plus inflation, we would be able to create an investment pot of between £180m rising to a maximum of £205m over the period.
‘There is a further opportunity around the tech fund announced nationally, although this is yet to be quantified, as well as use of capital funds.’
The ICB discussed and approved the draft proposal at a board meeting earlier this morning, and it is understood that ‘work will continue with partners to further develop’ the plan.
It comes after the new Government has pledged to ‘reform’ primary care, trialling ‘neighbourhood health centres’ which would have GPs and other community health staff ‘under one roof’. It is currently working on a new 10-year NHS plan, expected to be published in the ‘spring’.
Last year, an independent investigation into the NHS, led by Lord Ara Darzi, found that neighbourhood working and multidisciplinary teams will be the way forward for the system.
In October, North West London ICB also drew up similar plans to introduce integrated neighbourhood teams inspired by the Fuller Stocktake. These included 25 integrated neighbourhood teams, each made up of one or more PCNs and of about 100 staff members, looking after a population of 50,000 to 100,000 residents.
Providers ‘will work towards hub arrangements’ in which core services will be housed ‘behind a single reception’, creating a ‘single neighbourhood hub’ that provides ‘a range of health and care services’.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
