Improving Resilience
Resilience
General Practice Supporters is a business dedicated to helping General Practices and healthcare providers build resilience. We offer a range of services including practice assessments, education and training, and tailored support plans.
Our team has extensive experience in the healthcare sector, providing tailored and expert advice to help your business become more resilient. We have helped many practices build strong foundations, enabling them to deliver the highest quality of care to their patients.
By embracing resilience and developing a robust plan of action, General Practices can ensure they are able to provide quality care and support to their patients.
Becoming resilient is essential to ensure the continued health and well-being of our population. With the NHS in crisis and patients at risk of not getting the care they need, it is essential that General Practices become resilient. Not only are there not enough GPs, but many practices are failing due to lack of resources. To survive, General Practices must become more resilient and adopt strategies that enable them to better manage the demands of the health service. These strategies include using technology to increase efficiency, developing effective communication systems, and building relationships with other healthcare providers. By taking steps towards resilience, General Practices will be better equipped to continue providing quality care to their patients.
General Practice Supporters is a resilience initiative dedicated to helping General Practices across the UK become more resilient. Our mission is to ensure GPs are equipped with the knowledge and resources they need to survive and thrive despite the immense pressure they face. As well as General Practices, we work with Integrated Care Boards and Primary Care Networks.
Integrated Care Boards (ICB)
The Integrated Care Boards (ICB) need their General Practices to be resilient in order to deliver the best possible care to the Practice patient cohort. Poor care puts pressure on the surrounding health economy. If a practice begins to fail then care begins to fail. When this happens, patients start calling ambulances more often and Emergency Departments will see an increase in patients that should have been seen by a GP.
Failing Practices tend to fall foul of the CQC. A Section 31 could be issued and that means the partners have a legal responsibility to address the issues highlighted. Too much pressure and partners hand back contracts. Dispersals put enormous pressure on the surrounding General Practices. Our experience shows that for every 2,000 patients, a Practice takes on they would have a full-time GP, half a Practice Nurse and half a Health Care Assistant. This means 2 more clinical rooms. In addition, 2 administrators with desk sapce would also be required. If a Practice soaks up the additional patients without the additional resources, care will be diluted for all patients of the Practice.
Primary Care Networks (PCN)
To be able to add value to their member Practices, Primary Care Networks (PCN) need to be equally resilient. It is often a challenge to get GP partnerships to agree, and then getting those partnerships within a PCN to agree is an even more interesting challenge. PCNs will either be the saviour of General Practice or the death of General Practice. To increase the chances of being the saviour, PCNs need to deliver ever-increasing value. The Investment and Impact Fund (IIF) roles need to be well-defined, well-managed and deliver their value across the PCN. Practices need to understand the detail of the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (DES) and in particular how the income is earnt and distributed. This is imperative as more and more income is going to come through the Network DES.
A PCN can also deliver value by running back office functions for each of the Practices. For example, these functions could include Workflow, Recalls, Summarising, Reception Telephone Answering & Appointment Booking and basically any other of the back-office functions. This will not only help make the Practices more resilient in terms of staff, but will also save money.
General Practice
Most, if not every, General Practice will say they can't get GPs, and they can't get Nurses either. In fact, trying to attract any new member of staff is an uphill struggle. Interestingly, those Practices that are stable, that have the correct staffing levels and that have high partnership profits do not suffer anywhere near as much. We know Practices like this and they do attract partners, GPs and every other role. These Practices are resilient, they deliver great care and get paid for doing so. Anyone wishing to stay in Primary Care would find these Practices attractive to join.
General Practices get paid for delivering care.
The more care that is delivered the higher the income. Our expertise is optimising Practice Income. Costs, have to equally be managed. It's not about lowering costs at the expense of efficiency, it is about managing costs to deliver the required care. The third part is optimising the way the Practice delivers care. It's ensuring roles are defined and understood. Processes are efficient and deliver without ambiguity. Coding has to be taken to the next level. Good coding is essential for good care and essential for optimising income.