The Associate Director Primary Care will submit a report (Document “H”) which provides members with an update on Primary Care – General Practice since the last report provided to this committee in September 2021.

Recommended –

Members of the Health and Social Care Overview Scrutiny Committee are asked to note the contents of Document “H” detailing the current developments in primary care both nationally and locally.

(Parveen Akhtar Associate Director – Primary Care)

The Associate Director Primary Care submit a report (Document “H”) which provided members with an update on Primary Care – General Practice since the last report provided to this committee in September 2021.

The Director was at the meeting and with the invitation of the Chair, gave the following summary. He explained that on a national level, NHSE Planning Guidance published for 2022-23 identified the following 10 key priorities:

Workforce investment, including “strengthening the compassionate and inclusive culture needed to deliver outstanding care”. Responding to covid-19. Delivering “significantly more elective care to tackle the elective backlog”. Improving “the responsiveness of urgent and emergency care and community care capacity.” Increasing timely access to primary care, “maximising the impact of the investment in primary medical care and primary care networks”. Maintaining “continued growth in mental health investment to transform and expand community health services and improve access”. Using data and analytics to “redesign care pathways and measure outcomes with a focus on improving access and health equity for underserved communities”. Achieving “a core level of digitisation in every service across systems”. Returning to and better “pre-pandemic levels of productivity”. Establishing integrated care boards and collaborative system working, and “working together with local authorities and other partners across their ICS to develop a five-year strategic plan for their system and places”.

The priorities had been embedded into the CCGs and the ICSs delivery plans.

She further explained that in terms of local level, Bradford District and Craven, Health and Care Partnership have set with partners 5 key strategic priorities for 2022 – 2024. Based around the following:

1.    Purpose - Inverting the Power to Act

2.    Population – Recovery from Covid

3.    Place – Prevention of ill health

4.    Partnership – Workforce and Organisational Development

5.    Spotlight – Children and Young People

These strategic priorities would support system partners to focus on local areas to improve health outcomes. By working in partnership there was a shared common purpose and a greater value through the best use of resources and reduced duplication. Therefore, the health and care partnership had ambitions to an agreed 1% shift of funding to invest towards early intervention and prevention.

Review all our programmes including Act as One programmes, such as, aging well, diabetes, better births, children and young people’s wellbeing, healthy hearts, Access to health and care. We will be reviewing these programmes to ensure that they are still aligned with our key strategic priorities and that they do not overlap or duplicate other work programmes.

In response to clarifications sought by the committee, the following responses were given:

·         There were ongoing discussions on how technology could assist all stakeholders in moving forward but on a more effective platform. Thus, achieving “a core level of digitisation in every service across the service. However, this area was moving slow as opposed to a speedier nature as the service would have preferred;

·         Workforce capacity remained a huge pressure on primary care. However, there was a continued focus on recruiting and retaining GPs and the wider primary care workforce, alongside optimising current capacity with a long-term, system-wide workforce strategy that includes primary care.

·         More work as also required to make primary care more attractive to staff by addressing work-life balance, parity with other NHS career paths, and making a portfolio careers more accessible for a wider audience.

·         Training and education to encourage career development would be rolled out across primary care, from clinical to managerial and reception roles.

The Chair thanked the Director for the presentation of detailed information contained in the report.

Resolved: -

(1)  That a further update be provided in 12 months; and

(2)  That the scheduling of the update be reviewed in six months.

Action: Associate Director, Primary Care, Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership