New Report Calls for Country To Embrace Collaborative Primary Care at Scale
13 April 2022
A new report from Public Policy Projects (PPP) and Healthworks has called for the wholesale scaling of the provision of primary care in the UK to drastically improve patient outcomes and system efficiency.
The report: Stronger Together: Collaborative Primary Care at Scale, relates to the four contractor services that make up primary care: general practice, community pharmacy, dentistry and optometry. The report advocates a move away from a contractual process-dominated approach to primary care to one defined by quality improvement metrics and population health.
The report also calls for the acknowledgement of the mixed nature of the country’s health economy. Three of the four primary care services, pharmacy, dentistry and optometry, rely heavily on their continued existence on non-NHS contract funding. Indeed, the gap between NHS funding and private-pay work is widening. However, there remains significant distrust and misunderstanding of “profit-driven” healthcare across the public and even amongst the healthcare profession.
Zoe Richmond, LOCSU’s Clinical Director, contributed to the report and helped launch it:
“The report highlights that we all have a duty to better understand what each of the four contractor services of primary care do. There is so much to be gained from this enhanced understanding and collaboration.
“We need to encourage significant behaviour changes if we are to truly optimise primary care. Data sharing and increased digital connectivity has been long overdue for optometry.”
The report calls for the adoption of ‘Primary Care at Scale’ (PCaS), the purpose of which is to extend the provision of health and care services within a community setting through an integrated, team-based approach.
The full recording of the Stronger Together launch event can be viewed here: