NHS Greater Manchester (GM) Board has shared an update on progress made around its primary care blueprint, which focuses on developing a “unified” primary care strategy supported by the four disciplines of general practice, community pharmacy, dentistry, and optometry; in particular, the board highlights “positive progress” around the adoption of the modern general practice access model and the use of digital to support patient care.
The board shares stats around NHS App use in the region, with 52 percent of the eligible population reportedly registered for the app; an increase of 17 percent when it comes to medical record views between April and May 2024; and a six percent increase in prescriptions ordered via the app in the same time period. The report states that GM is “doing well in encouraging use of the NHS App and functionality”, and notes that digital facilitators in place to support practices with implementation of cloud telephony have also been able to offer support with encouraging app use.
At present and looking ahead, the board notes that “attention is being paid” to identify where patients navigate to, from the app; additionally, further communications have been developed to support PCNs with standard operating procedures for patient-led medication ordering.
Regarding ambitions to fully transition over to digital telephony, data shared from spring indicates that 50 analogue practices had progressed through the contract signature stage; 29 analogue practices were live and using new systems; 14 had an instalment date for April; and a further seven were to be deployed in May. “The ICB team continues to support providers where delays are indicated due to issues relating to complex cabling and provider lines,” the board comments, and adds that work is “continuing at pace” to bring Bolton PCNs on to the cloud-based telephony programme.
Looking at online journeys for patients along with care navigation, GM Board highlights the commitment to provide all practices with the digital tools and care navigation training for the modern general practice access model, and to fund transition cover for those committing to adopting the approach by March 2025. An engagement process around online and virtual consultation software procurement is reported to be in progress, with results from a survey to practices indicating that “most practices were happy with their existing supplier and functionality”.
Work is also ongoing to review practice websites, the board adds, and to offer support and guidance around improvements. The initial audit of practices websites has led to “significant” improvements around functionality and patient accessibility, with the second round of the audit underway at present.
The report points to continuing work between local authorities, the GM Combined Authority and the Digital First Primary Care Programme, to “ensure that citizens feel enabled to access care digitally featuring system wide communications and community in-reach from digital facilitators”. The emphasis on digital inclusion extends to primary care provider staff, with the board acknowledging the need for staff to feel confident with using new software and hardware.
GM Board shares that a “large” project is currently underway in collaboration with health Innovation Manchester with the intent to extend the GM Care Record to community pharmacy, and other efforts to expand the care record include “an increasing number” of care plans for different conditions being built into it including dementia, frailty and palliative care.
On innovation and improvements, the report highlights plans to develop and implement a consistent incident reporting approach across primary care; this will see localities supported to implement the ‘Learning from Patient Safety Events’ platform.
Spotlight on primary care
We recently asked the HTN audience for views on where the biggest priority for digital primary care should lie – funding to support innovation, interoperability, patient-facing digital tools, or back office efficiencies? Click here to see what our readers had to say.
In June, we reported on the data trends around online/video GP appointments this spring, according to information released by NHS England.
Looking back to May, we highlighted plans to test new ways of working to “optimise the general practice operating model” in a letter from Dr Amanda Doyle, national director of primary care and community services at NHS England, and Ed Garratt, chief executive of NHS Suffolk and North Essex ICB to integrated care boards.
Also from Manchester
Yesterday HTN published a blog from Mark Cubbon, group chief executive at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, in which he shares digital focuses, MFT’s EPR journey and their efforts to tackle health inequalities.
We covered news of a trial from the University of Manchester around a system designed to support patients living with rheumatoid arthritis by enabling them to send daily symptoms to their health record.
And finally we explored the three-year strategy from Health Innovation Manchester here.
