The new GP contract was published in early 2019 as part of the Long Term Plan. A key element of the new contract is the development of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) which will bring GP practices together with other local services – such as community, mental health, social care and the voluntary sector to look after local populations. PCNs will help to join up services at a local level, focusing on the specific needs of these local populations, with patients still accessing routine GP appointments as they do now.
What are PCNs?
PCNs build on current primary care services and enable greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated health and social care. Clinicians describe this as a change from reactively providing appointments to proactively providing care for the people and communities they serve. Where emerging PCNs are in place in parts of the country, there are clear benefits for patients and clinicians. PCNs usually have a 30-50k population and are geographically contiguous (next to or touching another). All GP practices in north Southwark are expected to sign up to be a member of a PCN. Read the NHS England PCN FAQs.
What are we doing in north Southwark?
QHS has met several times with our member practices, Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG ) and the Local Medical Committee (LMC) to discuss PCN development in north Southwark. All practices have signed up to being a large PCN that covers all practices and the registered population of north Southwark with QHS supporting its set up and implementation.
Our Clinical Directors
Our Interim PCN Clinical Directors are Olufemi Osonuga, Louisa Dove, Anita Banerjee and Stefan Lipinski.
If you have any questions or Freedom of Information (FoI) requests regarding PCNs please email [email protected].
