It has been a busy year for Chorley Roads Primary Care Network (PCN). Whilst continuing to deliver the Covid-19 vaccine programme, we have continued to recruit our Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) staff. We have welcomed to the PCN:

• Bart Gadulski – Paramedic
• Kirsty Broadbent – Pharmacy Technician
• Chloe Jackson – Social Prescribing Link Worker
• Naeem Wadiwala – Physicians Associate
• Stuart Barker – Musculoskeletal Practitioner

We have also welcomed Dr Sheetal Saagar as our Health Inequalities lead.

We have been successful in meeting a high number of our targets and carried out some exciting projects with new members of the PCN ARRS team. Our Pharmacy team successfully carried out our Learning Disability Quality Improvement Project.

We have also been successful in fulfilling a some of our PCN Impact and Investment Fund targets.

We’ve been working on the implementation of several new specifications such as Cardiovascular Disease, Extended Access and Tackling Neighbourhood Health Inequalities. I look forward to continuing the partnership working across all sectors to improve the health of our population, whilst also working on the original specifications.

Next year we will be focusing on the ARRS roles and how we can recruit and embed more clinicians into the PCN to support our member practices. We also have Trainee Associate Psychological Practitioners joining the team to support patients with their mental health, which is a new role for our PCN.

I would like to thank each member practice for their continued support during 2021-2022 and the exceptional work each and every member of the ARRS team have 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.