Dr Farzana Hussain We are Newham Central 1 Primary Care Network
and we are made up of 7 practices, the smallest list size is 5,000 the largest list size is
13,000. We serve 65,000 patients so it is a large network and that’s just over an
eighth of the population of Newham.
The reasons for our Primary Care Network coming together today was to undertake some quality
improvement. This year in our QOF we’ve got 2 quality improvement indicators each
worth 37 points each, one is end of life and today we’re concentrating on our safe prescribing.
Back in December 2016 I took part in the General Practice Improvement Leads Programme which
is part of Time for Care, and I wanted to use the quality improvement skills that I
have learnt and the tools I have learnt to help us achieve that, but also help us work
together and build our relationships up.
It’s looking something like this if it all goes to plan, one to two we’re doing a beautiful
process map on quality improvement.
Jignesh Patel We’ve actually developed in Newham, particularly
in Central 1, where pharmacists can start to actually engaging with GP practices and
Primary Care Networks to understand what we can offer them and what GPs are actually doing
at the moment. So for me to actually come into one of these meetings to understand what
the actual processes are, what the actual mapping looks like for now, in the future
and the next 5 years. It’s really important for me to understand where I can fit in and
what we can do as roles in community pharmacists to support the practices and Primary Care
Networks.
Hazel Trotter It’s really helpful in terms of getting
into the detail and working with our peers, and because we are both Practice Managers
and GPs in the room then we can look at both the admin processes and the clinical processes,
and have a joined up approach. So that’s why it’s really useful about doing the process
mapping in a group like that, and then you also get ideas from other people about what
they are doing even if they are calling it something different.
Dr Fazana Hussain Doing process mapping at a network level I
think has phenomenal benefits. It can reduce variation which we know is an issue for our
CCG for example. It can also give the patients across our network one service, one voice.
It’s very confusing being a patient if you go to one practice and they’re doing something
a bit different down the road.to another one. It also helps sharing and learning from different
practices. We all have things that we’re really good at and things we could improve
on and collective brains of 7 practices is always better.
Hazel Trotter You get to think about the wider issues and
think about the population and population health.
Salma Ali I was worried that our practice must be doing
something wrong that we’re not achieving the targets and the same 6 patients are going
to A & E, but I’ve just realised that it’s not just me there’s other practices that
are having the same problem and there was one thing I recognised, till one of the other
practice managers didn’t say I didn’t pick up on it. Mental health, dressing, so
we’re not the only ones having that problem, everyone is having that problem so as a network
now we can help solve that problem because we’ll take it back to the CCG.
Hazel Trotter Taking it back into the practice always includes
a little bit of a challenge because when you get back to your desk and real life seems
to take over, but the more we do is the more we can integrate it and build it into what
we are doing back in the practice.
Jignesh Patel Having been involved with this it has actually
improved the way we work in terms of integrated care and improvement to the patient’s journey.
Dr Farzana Hussain I’m really pleased to hear that there is
local and national support available for PCNs and we’re very fortunate locally that we’ve
got the Time for Care programme coming in. And also there’s not just the GP improvement
leads programme but there’s the leads programme for nurses as well as trainees. So I’ve
waited about 15 years before I learnt about quality improvement but I’m really pleased
to say that now ST3s can actually go on this sort of course to learn about quality improvement
just to help them in their working day.
If we really want to achieve our aims of Primary Care Networks being the building blocks of
integrated care systems, then quality improvement is a vital tool for us to use.