NHS England has commissioned the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) to help improve management of upcoming winter pressures.
The commission forms part of NHS England’s action to support general practice and PCNs through the next six months, and comes alongside a raft of further measures.
In a letter sent to practices this week, NHS England said the academy had been commissioned to identify actionable insights, over the next three months, where ‘clinical collaboration at the interface would have most impact in managing’ incoming pressures.
The letter also said several tools already exist to support systems to this end, including a briefing document on ‘why managing the primary/secondary care interface is important’ and a practical toolkit for ICSs improving it.
NHS England said: ‘The measures outlined above represent the beginning of a longer journey to support transformation of place-based primary and community care services into integrated neighbourhood teams, while providing a supportive environment to practices and alleviating some capacity pressures to make a tangible difference to patients.’
Dr Rachel Weaver, a GP and former clinical fellow at the Academy said: ‘We all know examples of things that could be improved as patients move from primary to secondary care or vice versa, this programme is designed to find what’s causing unnecessary friction or issues and to see if they can be removed or reduced.
‘We know there are some great efficiency improvements or solutions being used at a local level – our job is to find out what they are and then see if they can be replicated across the NHS. It’s about looking for real world answers to real world problems to make life easier for doctors, allied healthcare professionals and their patients.’
NHS England also announced sweeping changes to the Network DES that will see £37m worth of funding reallocated towards direct support payments for improving core GP access.
It comes in the wake of the health secretary’s controversial plan for patient access.
