We are really excited about the establishment of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) across the country. PCNs bring GP practices together into networks to work at greater scale:
Primary care networks (PCNs) consist of general practices working together with a range of local providers. These include services in primary care, social care, and the voluntary and community sector. The aim is to offer more personalised and coordinated health and social care to their local populations.
Newcastle GP Services, 2019 (newcastle-gp-services.co.uk/primary-care-networks)
PCNs were established in July, each with between 30,000 and 5,000 patients, and have opened up new opportunities for developing place-based services.
We have been asked by three of our local PCNs to provide their Social Prescribing Link Worker!
Our Social Prescribing Link Workers are Gill, who is working in North Gosforth PCN; Mark in the Outer West PCN; and Natalie in the Central PCN.
In addition to these roles, we have other contracts to help build the resilience of the PCNs’ GP practices and to work with specific patient cohorts:
- Sara is working into North Gosforth, researching support options for patients with mental health needs in the 18-30 age group
- Further projects about frailty and mental health are about to start with Outer West, Newcastle Health Futures, and Jesmond PCNs
The integration of health and social care provision is something we are passionate about, so we’re delighted to be involved.