The Neighbourhood Development Programme in City and Hackney in London is a primary care network based around eight neighbourhoods with populations of between 30-50,000. The neighbourhoods are structured round GP practices with a bottom-up, clinically-led support network bringing together all local partners engaged in integrated health and social care. In this podcast Ben talks to Clinical Lead and local GP Dr Steph Coughlin and Nina Griffith who is the work stream director for Neighbourhoods. They describe how the network functions and how it is bringing together all constituent organisations to improve access, reduce duplication, improve integration and, in the medium term, change outcomes for patients.
Alison Halliwell is a mental health practitioner leading a team in general practice in Fleetwood. The service Alison leads began in 2004 when 42% of patients were presenting to GPs with a mental health component to their illness. Fourteen years on and now only 8% of her GPs’ time is spent dealing with mental health issues. The service has won six national awards and Alison explains how it began, how it developed, how it runs and offers advice to other practices thinking of doing the same.
Farzana Hussain is a GP in the London Borough of Newham and a great advocate for quality improvement. For Farzana it is less a task and more like a way of life. In this podcast she explains why. She describes the three tools she has utilised in her own practice (The Change Model, Process Mapping and the PDSA Cycle) with some practical examples. She also explains the impact that building quality improvement into her day-to-day activities has had on the practice and on her.
This is the concluding part of our discussion with Andy Wilkins, the co-author of a report called Beyond The Fog: A future for public healthcare. In the first part published last week (find it here) Andy described the trends that will influence the future of healthcare. In this episode he looks at the likely impact that the developments described in the first episode might have on the role of general practice and the wider community of health. He looks at areas already taking the first steps and explains more about how he hopes the final report will be used in shaping health policy and describing an inspiring vision for the future.