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Cautiously optimistic

Dear editor…

I have cautious optimism about February’s health and social care White Paper. The sentiment is positive, setting the framework to enable the health and social care system to build on our work.

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The response to Covid-19 has seen many examples of collaboration and integrated care provision, delivering excellent results, but even before this, there were many areas developing it up and down the country.

The question is whether legislative change alone will deliver tangible improved and expanded collaboration and integration. This change itself will come from people and organisations collaborating, and this requires behavioural change, and the existence of the necessary facilitative organisational cultures. Whatever shape the new landscape takes, general practice and PCNs, as the fundamental building blocks for place-based care, should be a central voice in future collaborative and integrated developments. 

Dr Jeremy Carter executive partner,
Park Surgery, Herne Bay. Clinical director, Herne Bay PCN, Kent. Clinical director,
Herne Bay Health Care