We’ve heard a range of viewpoints from individuals working in primary care settings – so what help is out there to support practice managers, PCN staff and their colleagues in navigating the digital landscape in 2024?
FutureNHS Platform
The FutureNHS Platform offers a ‘PCNs and Practices Support Hub‘ aiming to provide access to up-to-date guidance and resources, including a PCN dashboard designed to help networks understand their local population health priorities and patient benefits. It provides interactive data on performance and achievement for the Investment and Impact Fund indicators along with PCN service delivery and progress with recruitment, with NHSE also providing resources to support individuals in using the dashboard.
There’s the PCN level tool for GP Patient Survey data, designed to support understanding of where good practice can be found and where improvements can be made. The PowerBI interactive tool presents results for each question of the survey at PCN level, compares it to the national result, and also breaks results down by GP practice.
Another workspace on FutureNHS Platform, ‘Primary Care Improvement Connect‘, shares a wealth of resources on the General Practice Improvement Programme, from insight into what the programme covers and its ambitions to information on the offers available to support practices and PCNs. It highlights quality improvement training and events on a virtual calendar and signposts users to an online discussion forum where healthcare professionals can discuss challenges and share ideas or feedback. There are case studies; blogs, vlogs and podcasts; training and development resources; and more.
Then there is the ‘Digital Primary Care’ workspace on the platform which provides further resources on a wide range of digital topics. It is intended as a collaborative learning space in which NHS colleagues can share lessons learned from digital programmes across England and network with colleagues. The workspace offers support on key topics such digital system procurement and digital requirements in the GP contract, along with a range of data-led tools to help staff develop understanding and support decision making.
ARRS roles
The GP access recovery plan, published in May 2023, outlined intentions around developing a sustainable general practice, improving digital access and tools, supporting citizen remote care, building capacity and expanding supporting services such as community pharmacies. HTN reported on the GP access recovery plan with a focus on the role of digital here.
Highlighting plans to build larger multidisciplinary teams, NHSE stated that up to £385 million would be made available in Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) funding, to continue to grow capacity and expand roles. These roles, NHSE, include a digital and transformation lead; they will focus on assisting practices in their digitisation journey and in undertaking the modern general practice approach.
The plan also highlighted that primary care staff can access a suite of health and wellbeing offers called ‘Looking After You’, with the Practitioner Health Service extended to provide a free, confidential mental health and addiction service.
NHSE added that training around care navigation and digital transformation would be launched to assist with the upskilling of newer roles in general practice; we covered new guidance on general practice navigation in November 2023. The guidance highlights the three key elements of a care navigation model and insights such as the seven key needs for online consultation forms, along with general advice and ‘top tips’.
Also in May, NHSE launched a new programme designed to support PCN digital and transformation leads with core skills, with the aim of helping them to lead transformational change within their organisation. With the first cohort chosen from the summer onwards, a 12-month development programme sees digital and transformation lead ARRS roles supported in areas including quality improvement, data and digital, and transformation management. The cohort is also provided with a peer community to share learnings.
NHS App
The latest updates to ‘NHS App guidance for GP practices’ was made in July 2023. It covers guidance on app features, access training, how to communicate with patients about the app, monitoring patient use of the app and more. Click here to access it.
So what has been happening around the NHS App over the last year? We’ve covered a number of updates on its progress over the last 12 months – let’s take a look at some of the news stories coming out of 2023.
In September, we noted that NHSE is planning an independent review into 10 healthcare apps in order to consider enhancements for the NHS App; the review will look into user experience, features and functionality across the 10 apps with a view to providing insights and recommendations for the future.
Earlier in the year, at London Tech Week, Lord Markham delivered a keynote speech in which he noted plans to introduce mental health and MSK tools into the NHS App.
May saw NHSE announce that patients would be offered a shortlist of at least five care providers to choose from through the NHS App when they are referred by a GP, in order to provide patients with more choice and control over their own care by allowing them to make choices based on preferred selection criteria such as waiting time or distance.
We also took a look at a study published in Research Square which set out how researchers analysed data from 6,356 primary care providers across England to test the association between population characteristics and digital uptake, focusing on the NHS App and primary care service portals. Analysis of 12 months of metadata from providers, up to October 2022, indicated that by the end of this period, more than 37 million patients were activated on the NHS App (67.9 percent of the population). The study found that increased population from the two most socioeconomically deprived quintiles was associated with reduced activation of the app, with the least deprived quintile associated with greater app uptake. Age was another factor affecting uptake, with the 76-85 age group at a lower level of uptake. The researchers found varying association with long-term conditions, with heart failure and chronic pulmonary disorder patients associated with increased uptake; but dementia and mental health patients associated with reduced uptake. Click here to find out more.
