Carla Sutton, Senior Contract Manager, NHS England North (Cheshire & Merseyside) presented the Board with a report that outlined changes to GP provision at the All Day Health Centres, and the development of a proposal to provide a fairer, more equitable access to primary medical care services, outside of normal core hours.

After a review of GP Services by NHS England and how patients accessed care had been considered by an Urgent Care Review by NHS Wirral, it had recognised that the All Day Health Centre was predominately accessed by patients using the services whilst also being registered at other Wirral Practices.

Discussions between NHS England North (Cheshire & Merseyside) and NHS Wirral CCG in the last two years had led to the development of a proposal to provide a fairer, more equitable access for GP services over seven days per week and outside of normal core hours at a large scale in multiple hubs in key locations, to all Wirral residents, away from the main Hospital site.

It was reported that this action had been responsive to the GP Five Year Forward View (October 2014) focus of improving access to GP services, and this drive had been given further direction within the General Practice Forward View (Chapter 5, April 2016) in which CCGs were required to Commission routine appointments at evening and weekends to meet demand, plus additional investment for improved IT access to patient records

The report provided details of the proposed Pilot Service Model and the proposed delivery sites. With regard to the Patient List it was noted that The All Day Health Centre had a very low registered practice list (approximately 600 patients, in comparison to the average practice size of 6000 patients).  The patients were generally evenly spread across Wirral.

It was noted that without the funding for the wider GP service, maintaining the registered list would not be a viable option as a stand-alone service. A patient engagement exercise had commenced with the registered patient list regarding the list dispersal and would continue over the next ten weeks.

A dedicated team would communicate directly with the registered patients by

•  writing to all patients on the registered list

•  offering direction and support to find new GP practices closer to the patient home address

•  dedicated phone line and email address to help answer queries (including translation services)

•  hosting two engagement ‘drop in’ sessions at the All Day Health Centre site

•  the team would review the registered list for any patient identified as vulnerable or requiring additional support in finding a new practice (patients with on-going treatment, children on ‘at risk’ registers etc.)

•  helping patients with particular needs or requests find a suitable practice (for example patients looking for evening appointments will be directed to appropriate practices)

In the majority of cases patients would be able to secure registration at practice closer to their home address, which would also result in less travel. It was noted that Wirral was fortunate to be able to offer good choice of GP practice to Wirral residents.

Resolved – That the content of the report, the transfer of resources and the on-going development of a Wirral Wide service within primary care be noted.