An essential first step in building successful Primary Care Networks is to understand and define the concept of primary care network, how this fits with the wider health and social care system, as well as the type of partnership that the PCN is.
We know from the NHS Policies that a PCN is a geographically contiguous teams of practices caring for a population of 30,000 to 50,000 people delivering data-driven integrated multi-disciplinary team based services. We also know that its purpose is to:
- stabilise general practice, including the GP partnership model
- address capacity gaps and improve skill-mix by growing the wider workforce by over 20,000 wholly additional staff as well as helping to increase GP and nurse numbers
- become a proven platform for further local NHS investment
- dissolve the divide between primary and community care, with PCNs looking out to community partners not just in to fellow practices
- systematically deliver new services to implement the Long Term Plan, including the seven new service specifications, and achieved clear, positive and quantified impacts for people, patients and the wider NHS
The PCN, at its core, is a partnership made up of member practices. Unit 1 of Module 2 explores the notion of partnership working in the PCN context, the barriers that might imped partnership working, how these can be overcome and what happens when partnership working is successful across PCNs.