GPs and practice teams will be required to take part in an ‘intensive’ coaching programme this summer in preparation for the first of the new neighbourhood health services going live in September.
The Government announced yesterday that the initial phase of the neighbourhood health programme will be launched in 42 sites at the start of autumn, targeting deprived areas ahead of a national roll out.
ICBs and local authorities have been asked to submit applications to take part, by outlining examples of ‘joined-up working and innovation’ in their areas that bring together health and care providers, voluntary groups, and community members.
Successful applicants will then be asked to join ‘an intensive national coaching programme’ over the summer, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said, to help local partnerships prepare for taking on responsibility for more community-based services.
This training programme will include ‘major workshop days’ for GPs and their teams, patients, the voluntary sector and local authorities, it added.
Proposals for the neighbourhood health service were at the heart of the Government’s 10-year health plan unveiled last week.
The goal is that care for patients with multiple long-term conditions and complex needs will shift away from hospitals, so it’s closer to home and delivered by multi-disciplinary teams including GPs.
To drive the reforms, an NHS England and DHSC joint taskforce has been created, chaired by GP Sir John Oldham and comprising NHS leaders, local authority bosses, and other key figures from the voluntary sector and health and care organisations.
The DHSC said the new service will be prioritised among working class areas where healthy life expectancy is lowest and communities with the greatest need although it will ensure the first phase of the programme covers all regions.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘If we are to get patients cared for faster, on their doorstep and even in their own home, then we need to shift the focus of the NHS from hospitals to the community. We are issuing an open invitation to local authorities and health services to become pioneer Neighbourhood Health Services and lead the charge of healthcare reform.’
He added that the neighbourhood health service was starting ‘in areas of greatest need first, to tackle the unfair health inequalities that blight our country.’
Meanwhile, the BMA has raised concerns that the 10-year plan could ‘seriously undermine’ the current GP practice model, revealing that its GP committee had not been allowed to see the plan ahead of publication.
The Government reforms will introduce two new GP contracts from 2026 to encourage them to work across larger areas and lead neighbourhood health services.
However, the BMA is currently in negotiations with the Government for a new wholesale GMS contract to come into force by 2028.
GPC England chair Dr Katie Bramall said that committee members are currently ‘working through the plan’.
She explained: ‘’The BMA’s GP Committee for England will meet in the coming weeks to consider the many questions we intend to put to the Government.
‘While the plan contains several aspirational ideas, we need detail and funding for the new GP contract to be delivered within this Parliament as per the Secretary of State’s written promise of 18 March.
‘What we can already see is that the plan points to potentially profound changes to general practice, changes that, in some instances, could seriously undermine the current practice model and the continuity of care that patients rely on.’
