GPs are ‘well placed’ to lead neighbourhood model, says NAPC
GPs should have leadership roles within the Government’s new neighbourhood model, the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC) has said.
NAPC – one of the stakeholders consulted by the Government to shape next year’s GP contract – said it ‘strongly’ supports the direction towards neighbourhood-based models of care, and that GPs are ‘well placed’ to lead them.
In a statement, it also argued that for the model to succeed, funding for core general practice and neighbourhood delivery must be ‘clear and transparent’.
NAPC clinical chair Professor Andy Brooks said: ‘The shift towards neighbourhood-based models of care feels directionally right.
‘As GPs with our professional colleagues, we are well placed to provide clinical leadership across neighbourhoods – holding continuity, understanding population need, and coordinating care for patients whose lives don’t fit neatly into organisational silos.’
While NAPC acknowledged that improving access remains a priority, it stressed that the Government must strive to understand GP access ‘in a meaningful way’.
It comes after the Government introduced a new requirement for same-say access for all clinically urgent patients as part of next year’s GP contract, and practices will be required to code the urgent appointments and also provide more data on this to NHS England.
NAPC said: ‘Many practices are working under sustained pressure, managing high demand, workforce challenges and increasing complexity.
‘Any new requirements, even where well-intended, need to be carefully prioritised, paced and supported to avoid adding cumulative burden.
‘We recognise the changing nature of clinical practice and the need for data collection and assurance. However small additional tasks, even when described as “minimal”, can accumulate and have a real impact on workload, quality and safety.
‘These tasks may be of a clinical nature or an administrative one. There is a real opportunity for a step change to free up time and resource to focus on quality and outcomes.’
The BMA has already argued that GPs must take leadership roles withing neighbourhoods now, rather than wait for new contracts to be published by the Government – and it also warned that encouraging trusts to take over GP practice premises suggests the Government wants secondary care to lead neighbourhoods, rather than GPs.
It comes amid a delay to the publication of guidance on neighbourhood health contracts, which GP leaders have complained has left the NHS in a ‘vacuum’.
But despite the lack of guidance, some ICBs have already chosen trusts – rather than GP practices – to lead their neighbourhood models.
NHS England and Government leaders told neighbourhood stakeholders including GPs ‘not to wait’ for the neighbourhood health guidance to be published before starting to work in the new manner suggested in the 10-year plan.
