Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS has shared insight into work aiming to improve the way primary and secondary care work together, with more than 80 projects reported to have taken place in the space since the formation of a dedicated primary-secondary care interface group in September 2021.
Dr Alun Harcombe from Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust highlights how the group started informally with a view to enabling primary and secondary care colleagues to share and tackle problems together, before transitioning to a more formalised approach with weekly virtual meetings between participants.
The group initially sought to achieve “quick wins” initially such as communication issues and task handovers between the two care settings, before moving on to implement task forces and initiatives to tackle larger challenges.
The ICS states that the work is “being held up as an exemplar nationally”, after participants were asked to present details about integration work through the NHS Confederation earlier this year, enabling sharing of best practice for other NHS trusts and organisations.
Primary-secondary care interface in the spotlight
HTN previously hosted a virtual discussion on the primary-secondary care interface with focus on the role of digital. During the discussion Dr Paul Wright (previously NHS Greater Manchester and Manchester and Trafford Local Care Organisation) stated that defining the primary and secondary interface is key, because “effectively at locality level, it’s probably the crack that people tend to fall into, or the thing that stops patient care from happening as you hope it would. When those interface conversations are taking place, there needs to be a focus on the inbound workload, and on optimising of advice and guidance.”
Earlier this year, we looked into a journal exploring the landscape of data sharing across recent years in the NHS, along with the impact of primary to secondary care data sharing on care quality.
Last summer HTN also noted a report from think tank Policy Exchange called ‘Medical Evolution’ which centred around a cross-party call for a proactive approach as well as highlighting the role of digital in managing the interface between GPs and hospitals.
Primary care
Looking at primary care in particular, HTN recently hosted a panel exploring innovation in primary care which saw panellists discuss topics such as what innovation in primary care looks like; how innovation can impact patient access; and what primary care needs to innovate along with what the barriers are.
We shared an update on progress on the primary care blueprint from NHS Greater Manchester, which focuses on developing a “unified” primary care strategy supported by the four disciplines of general practice, community pharmacy, dentistry, and optometry
And we asked our audience for their views on where the biggest priority for digital primary care should lie.
