It has been a busy year for Chorley Roads Primary Care Network. It has been the first year we have fully delivered the IIF to its full potential due to the previous years being retired due to the pressures of the pandemic. We continued to recruit into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Roles Scheme and welcomed the following staff to the PCN:

Jane Fryer – Paramedic
Sarah Chapman – Paramedic
Caroline Burgum – Dietician
Varsha Itteeheeroo – Care-Coordinator
Margret Warren – Care-Coordinator
Nicola Martin – Care-Coordinator
Barabara Smith – Digital and Transformation Lead

We have also welcomed Dr Ali Ohmed as our new PCN Cancer Lead.

During the financial year, we successfully rolled out the PCN DES and implemented a new cardiovascular disease pathway, resulting in the PCN identifying 372 hypertensive patients. Our care home pharmacist Maryam completed 131 structured medication reviews for our care home residents and ensured they all had a personalised care and support plan. Our social prescribing team had 459 referrals during the financial year and supporting with the PCNs Health and Equality Plan.

During the next financial year, We will continue to build on our health inequalities plan and ensure this is a priority for those hard-to-reach patients. Capacity and Access will continue to be a large part of our work plan to provide good and improved access for our patients.

I would like to thank each member practice for their continued support during 2024-2025 and the exceptional work each member of the ARRS team has contributed over the last 12 months.

Victoria Westwood, Network Manager

The new GP contract was published in early 2019 as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. A key element of the new contract is the development of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) which bring GP practices together with other local services – such as community, mental health, social care and the voluntary sector to look after local populations. The PCNs share ideas and staff. PCNs help to join up services at a local level, focusing on the specific needs of these local populations, with patients still accessing routine GP appointments as they do now. You can read the NHS England PCN FAQs here and view the BMA PCN handbook (March 2019) here.

Chorley Roads Network PCN is 1 of 9 networks across Bolton. The 5 surgeries in Chorley Roads PCN are:

• Cornerstone Surgery
• Dalefield Surgery
• Heaton Medical Centre
• Spring House Surgery
• Wyresdale Road Surgery

Our Clinical Director is Dr Dharmesh Mistry.

Other services are also planning their service delivery around networks and the collection is known as a neighbourhood. This includes, community nursing, health visiting, housing, Community Voluntary Sector just to name a few. This will hopefully help form closer link which allows for more joined up care for patients.

This will hopefully reduce duplication of services and also mean patients have to only tell their story once and deliver care closer to home, by the the right person at the right time in the right place. These are all aims of the over Bolton Vision for Health and Social Care by 2030 – https://www.boltonvision.org.uk/

Networks have to deliver specific services and in the coming years will be responsible for more. Currently these include: 

• Enhanced care in Care Home
• Extended hours
• Medication reviews in specific patient groups for safety
• Increased flu vaccine coverage
• Utilisation of a Social Prescribing Link Worker Learn More.
• Improved Cancer care
• Health Check in the Learning Disabilities group

To help deliver some of these areas the Network has employed and seconded staff with the management help of Bolton GP Federation to work across all the practices. The workforce include experienced first contact practitioners who can help manage a wide range of matters as an alternative to seeing your GP: 

• Pharmacists
• MSK
• Mental Health Worker
• Social Prescribing Link Worker
• Pharmacy Technician
• Community Paramedic
• Frailty Specialist Nurse

In the future the plan is to also use a Physician Associate.

In addition a number of additional staff which support the practices on a day to day basis:

• Care Coordinators
• Digital and Transformation Lead

Further details of the staff involved in Chorley Roads Primary Care Network can be found below.