UCLPartners work to help people living with long term conditions shortlisted for General Practice Award
Dr Matt Kearney, GP and Executive Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Health at UCLPartners said: “I am incredibly proud for our team to have our work shortlisted for this GP Award. The challenges we have faced in primary care during the COVID pandemic were stark, and the asks have not let up now that we’ve entered a new normal, living alongside the virus.
“We developed our Proactive Care Frameworks to help primary care teams weather and emerge from the COVID pandemic stronger. The frameworks support practices to do things differently, risk stratifying patients to identify those whose care most needs optimising, and using the wider workforce to support clinical care and self-management, freeing up time for clinicians.”
Many primary care networks (PCNs) across our local patch in North Central London and North East London and throughout England are using our Proactive Care Frameworks (PCF) meaning thousands of patients are having their care guided by them.
The frameworks have been widely welcomed by GPs and other clinicians. Some examples of how the frameworks have positively impacted on patient care and workforce capacity are:
- For example, 3 PCNs across Knowsley saw a 50% reduction in patients in the asthma high risk cohort by prioritising patients whose treatment needed optimising
- Across 5 practices in Haringey they saw a 41% reduction in the hypertension high risk cohort and 13% reduction in the second priority group
- In Barking, Havering and Redbridge, clinical pharmacists identified over 400 patients with CVD who were not on statins and started treatment
- In lakeside PCN covering 180,000 patients, by using the frameworks across 6 conditions, they released sufficient nursing time to catch up on 650 backlog smears
The Royal College of GPs has issued national guidance recommending the use of our frameworks to support post-pandemic long term condition recovery. And our hypertension (high blood pressure) framework has become a core part of the National Blood Pressure Optimisation Programme, meaning all 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) across England are now supporting the rollout of the frameworks across their regions. This is helping to reach the NHS long-term plan’s ambitious target of saving 150,000 lives – by improving management of blood pressure, cholesterol and atrial fibrillation. Our Size of the Prize initiative shows that if 80% of people with hypertension are treated effectively, in England we will prevent around 12,000 heart attacks and strokes, saving over £135 million in health care costs over three years.
Each year the General Practice Awards recognise and celebrate the innovation and hard work of individuals and teams working within primary care in the UK. This year, winners will be announced at an awards night on 9 December 2022.
Dr Dean Eggitt, member of the GP Awards judging panel, said: “These are truly inspiring reads that really fill me with a great sense of hope and enthusiasm. Anyone who thinks General Practice is struggling should be given a copy of these entries to read. I am truly honoured to have had the chance to review the work of these wonderful individuals.”
Our PCFs recently won an Innovate Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Population Health Through Innovation’. They have also been shortlisted for a ‘Primary and Community Care Innovation of the Year’ HSJ award, with the winners due to be announced in November.