The primary-secondary care interface is not effective at ensuring efficient continuity of patient care between settings, a survey has found.
The State of Primary Care survey took place across Healthcare Leader and its sister titles and was answered by 1,795 healthcare professionals across the NHS, 1,294 of which worked in primary care, including GPs, clinical directors, pharmacists and nurses.
It found that only 15% of respondents thought the primary-secondary care interface was effective at ensuring continuity, with 52% saying it was not effective.
Around 17% also said that PCNs had improved collaboration between primary and secondary care, but 59% said they disagreed with this.
Most respondents (68%) added that they would like to see an improvement in the movement of patients between primary and secondary care prioritised by the next government.
In June, NHS England asked ICBs to act as ‘referees’ to resolve ‘tension’ between primary and secondary care around workload and referrals.
NHSE deputy medical director, Dr Kiren Collison, said there was ‘a lot of tension at times’ between primary and secondary care and that NHSE was trying to ‘get away from that’.
NHS Confederation recently said that there were four ‘key ingredients’ needed to ‘shift the dial’ in relationships between primary and secondary care. These were better understanding, shared information, improving communication methods and shared robust guidelines.
Last year, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges also set out 10 administrative changes that could be made to improve the way in which hospital and general practice staff work together. This included establishing regular ‘interface groups’, a primary care liaison officer, shared mailboxes and non-public phone numbers.
The report also found that ICB engagement with primary care is worse than it was with CCGs.
To read the full report click here.
The State of Primary Care survey took place between April 29 and May 20 2024 across Healthcare Leader and our sister titles, Pulse PCN, Pulse, Nursing in Practice, The Pharmacist, Management in Practice and Hospital Pharmacy Europe.
There were 1,795 responses from health professionals. The majority – 72% or 1,294 – of respondents work in primary care in England. There were answers from across England with all 42 ICBs represented.
