Primary Care Networks bring general practices together to provide a wider range of services to support patients. Additionally, by decreasing the workload on general practice teams, they improve overall access to first contact care that is needed by the patient. By supporting your local practices we aim to help the recruitment and retention staff, manage finances and facilities more efficiently and to integrate with the wider health and care system supporting the long term plan of the NHS.
As we come out of the Covid Pandemic, demand and pressures on primary care continue to grow. The PCN offers an opportunity for collective services to be shared to support our patients and preserve our work force.
GP’s and patients in Andover suffer the consequences of many of these pressures on top of longer standing issues such as health problems for families who are struggling with low incomes, patients with challenging access to Primary Care support due to service limitations as well as GP appointments due to increased demand. Many health problems have arisen as a result of pandemic and many have been made worse because of it.
Andover PCN can help:
With our additional roles working across practices, we can offer alternatives for patients to seeing a GP.
Engagement with community organisations and structures to ensure we can feed patients back into non-healthcare settings when that is more appropriate for their needs.
Using pharmacists and care-coordinators to proactively manage our elderly and complex patients where polypharmacy and poor continuity have the potential to cause significant harm.
Being a single voice and contact point for other organisations to engage with Andover Primary Care, lifting some of this burden from practices, but also providing stronger advocacy for our population.
We hope to demonstrate that the PCN can support primary care in Andover thrive in difficult times. We expect the PCN to continue to develop and improve patient care in Andover, and to create opportunities for innovative ways of promoting wellbeing.
