Primary Care

Primary care is the keystone of the NHS, providing high-quality responsive integrated care for patients in health and care systems.

Our vision is for primary care to be valued, supported, well-resourced and empowered to drive innovation, improve population health and reduce health inequalities.

Primary care networks (PCNs) form a key building block of the NHS long-term plan and are groups of practices working together to focus on local patient care.

Primary Care Networks (PCNs)

A PCN consists of groups of general practices working together with a range of local providers, including across primary care, community services, social care and the voluntary sector, to offer more personalised, coordinated health and social care to their local populations. They are the ‘building block’ of local healthcare systems and generally cover local populations of 30-50,000.

Networks will be the footprint around which integrated community-based teams will develop, and community and mental health services will be expected to configure their services around PCN boundaries. These teams will provide services to people with more complex needs, providing proactive and anticipatory care.

Primary care networks will also be expected to think about the wider health of their population, taking a proactive approach to managing population health and assessing the needs of their local population to identify people who would benefit from targeted, proactive support.

The expectation that they will be a key vehicle for delivering many of the commitments in the long-term plan and providing a wider range of services to patients.

To do this we are expected to provide a wider range of primary care services to patients, involving a wider set of staff roles than might be feasible in individual practices, for example, first contact physiotherapy, extended access and social prescribing. Primary care networks are focused on service delivery

Lingwell Croft Surgery is part of the Beeston, Hunslet and Middleton PCN and has taken a leading role within our Four practice PCN.

Want to learn more, then visit the website at https://www.beestonmiddletonandhunsletpcn.nhs.uk/ or join our Patient Participation Group (PPG)