RE: Long Read7 Jan 2019 13:05
The £4.5 billion of new investment will fund expanded community multidisciplinary teams aligned with new primary care networks based on neighbouring GP practices that work together typically covering 30-50,000 people. As part of a set of multi-year contract changes individual practices in a local area will enter into a network contract, as an extension of their current contract, and have a designated single fund through which all network resources will flow. Most CCGs have local contracts for enhanced services and these will normally be added to the network contract. Expanded neighbourhood teams will comprise a range of staff such as GPs, pharmacists, district nurses, community geriatricians, dementia workers and AHPs such as physiotherapists and podiatrists/chiropodists, joined by social care and the voluntary sector. In many parts of the country, functions such as district nursing are already configured on network footprints and this will now become the required norm.