This collection of documents aims to provide guidance to General Practices considering merging into a single entity, it is focused on supporting General Practice in achieving and maintaining sustainability, and exploring new, innovative ways of working. The following toolkit was updated by NHS England in December 2017 in the light of experience and changes to team members.

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BACKGROUND:

This series is organised by E4H, in partnership with the Academic Health Science Networks, voluntary sector, Public Health England and NHS England. Bayer, the BMS-Pfizer Alliance and Boehringer Ingelheim are supporting and funding these meetings.

The most recent series contains three events with the same purpose and aims. Birmingham (November 2017) and Newcastle (January 2018) and this event in Exeter

The events are suitable for commissioners, primary and secondary care providers, STP leads, medicine optimisation and other key stakeholders with an interest in Atrial Fibrillation (AF). They will highlight the wide range of tools available to support them via public bodies, charities and commercial companies.

The events aim to provide the opportunity for delegates in the South West to:

• Learn and experience a range of innovative tools and technological solutions to overcome key challenges across the AF care pathway.
• Identify opportunities to implement interventions to improve the detection and management of AF in your local population.
• Network with peers across agencies to foster the development of local communities of practice.

We are helping to organise the Exeter event, taking place on 15 March at the Mercure Southgate Hotel Exeter.

The Innovation in Healthy Ageing project responds to a number of challenges and opportunities around the impact of ageing populations, changing lifestyle choices and the rise in chronic conditions which are placing increasing pressure on healthcare budgets but are also driving a transformation in how healthcare services are delivered.

We have a £450,000 Challenge Fund to help Devon businesses and social enterprises to collaborate and innovate new products or services that promote healthy ageing. 

NHS England has launched an Improving Access to General Practice buddying network which will provide peer to peer support and shared learning to CCGs from GP Access Fund schemes.  

The aim of the buddying network is to support CCGs to help deliver improved access to general practice across the country by March 2019, and meet the seven core requirements set out in the NHS England Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance 2017-19

Health Education England (HEE), through its MAPs Oversight Board, has worked in partnership with representatives of the devolved administrations, a number of Medical Royal College and their affiliated faculty representative, to collate information on the scope of practice for each MAP role, assessing the evidence of the degree of risk of harm to patients.  

The comprehensive General Practice Merger Toolkit has been developed by Debbie Penney and Denys Rayner, Change Managers in South West England. The Toolkit shared includes a suite of documents to aid a merger in General Practice.

Before progressing further with a merger, it is advised to have considered these initial questions about compatibility and understanding of winners and losers:

• What is your purpose for merging and what is the vision for the newly merged practice?

• What new services and ways of working at scale will the merger achieve?

This report provides a summary of the methodology, the main findings from the development of the tool and draws some high level conclusions. The detail of the literature review can be found in a separate report: Return on Investment of Interventions for the Prevention and Treatment of Musculoskeletal Conditions - Report of Literature Review, June 2017.

The aim of the slide pack is to support the roll out of improved access to general practice, as detailed in the NHS Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance 2017-19.

Published in October 2017 by Public Health England, a report on five key interventions to facilitate patients to better self-care, improve their health and wellbeing and reduce demand on general practice if implemented systematically across primary care.

Video produced by Integrated Care Partnerships part of the Health and Social Care Board, Northern Ireland. A statutory organisation which arranges or ‘commissions’ health and social care services for the population of Northern Ireland. Accountable to the Health Minister, for turning their vision for health and social care into a range of services that deliver high quality and safe outcomes for patient and service users, are good value for the taxpayer, and comply with statutory duties.

NHS England has announced funding for additional indemnity costs for GP’s willing to work extra sessions in Plymouth practices or extra out of hours (OOH) shifts in West Devon as a whole. This scheme will initially operate for up to 1 year (in the expectation that there may be national changes to indemnity cover) and will be reviewed in March 2018. 

This is in addition to the expected national winter indemnity scheme which has been run in previous years and will be available to all GP’s working extra OOH sessions from 1 October 2017 onwards. No further details have been published as yet but will be circulated once known.

This is a  non judgmental centre for sexual health and HIV at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.

Please follow the link for more information 

East Devon Health is a federation of 13 GP practices in East Devon. 

Attached below is a guide on social prescribing for commissioners. Co-produced by professionals in social prescribing realm, this extensive document is equally suitable for new commissioners and existing professionals who are active in the social prescribing field.