Benefits

We are supporting general practice to:

• enable better use of GP practice appointments and resources and ensure patients can be seen by the right person, at the right time and in the right place
• improve sharing of responsibility within practice teams and the wider primary care system, and
• promote effective multidisciplinary working.

We are doing this by:

Drawing on the extensive work and learning from the Practice Administrative Staff Collaborative, we are now launching the Care Navigation in General Practice: 10-Step Guide.

This resource forms one part of the Primary Care Communications Toolkit. This toolkit provides information and resources for NHS boards, HSCPS and professional bodies to support their communications about changes to Dental, GP Practice, Optometry and Community Pharmacy services in response to COVID-19.

The Care Navigation in General Practice: 10-Step Guide provides practical guidance on how to set up, or review, care navigation processes and pathways within general practice at pace and scale. It also contains links and references to related support materials developed by our national partners.

To support the implementation of this guide, we are offering an extensive package of practical support including:

• virtual 1-hour awareness sessions
• follow-on bespoke support delivered through group coaching workshops, and
• one-to-one support calls to practices on request.

How can you access resources and support?

All boards, HSCPs and professional bodies can access the Care Navigation in General Practice: 10-Step Guide and the Primary Care Communications Toolkit.

In December 2020, a series of 16 virtual workshops were provided to support practices implement safe and effective processes for Care Navigation.

You can access the slides and a 40 minutes recording of the "Implementing Care Navigation" workshop below.

Download the slides (PDF)

For more information or implementation support please contact us at his.pcpteam@nhs.scot 

This programme aims to support the development of staff and improvement of GP practice processes to deliver pharmacotherapy services as outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding 2: GMS Contract Implementation for Primary Care Improvement (2021). The Royal Pharmaceutical Society Scotland and British Medical Association’s joint statement supports that full delivery of pharmacotherapy services is essential to improving primary care for patients, GP practice staff and pharmacists.

Benefits

We are supporting general practice to:

• improve patient access to repeat and long-term prescriptions
• ensure medicines-related activity is dealt with by the right member of the practice team at the right time, safely and efficiently
• reduce GP practice and pharmacy staff workload, and
• allow GP's to spend more time with patients and focus their role on being expert medical generalists. 

We are doing this by:

Working with practice teams and pharmacy staff across a range of NHS boards and HSCPs, we will develop practical guidance and resources to support set-up and management of acute and serial prescriptions.

Drawing on the learning and expertise within the Pharmacotherapy Collaborative we have now launched the Serial Prescription Toolkit. This resource provides primary care teams with a step-by-step guide to support the introduction of serial prescriptions.

To support implementation we will be providing standalone introductory webinars to explore how the Serial Prescription Toolkit can support practices. We will also be offering bespoke support at an HSCP or cluster level.

To find out more visit the Pharmacotherapy page.

We are currently in the planning stages of the Acute Prescription Programme, more information to follow.

How can you access resources and support?

For more information or implementation support please contact us at his.pcpteam@nhs.scot.

ACP is a person-centred, proactive approach to help people consider what is important to them and plan for their future care. 

Benefits

We are supporting health and care services to:

• have care planning conversations with people to help them to think ahead and express their goals and preferences for the future
• improve coordination of care across care settings both in and out of hours, and
• reduce inappropriate interventions, hospital admissions and repeated difficult conversations.

How can you access resources and support?

We are doing this by working with professionals from across health and social care, the third sector and people with lived experience, developing and updating online resources and signposting to relevant materials.

You can access resources to support individuals and those providing care to have ACP conversations on our Anticipatory Care Planning Toolkit.

Download our ACP Flyer for more information. 

For more information, please contact us at his.pcpteam@nhs.scot.

Benefits

We support primary care services to learn together.

The Primary Care Learning System aims to accelerate the sharing of learning and improvement work across primary care services and underpins all our activities. Through collaborative working, sharing good practice and providing training this programme aims to encourage continuous learning at all levels, in every primary care setting.

We are doing this through a range of engagement and learning opportunities:

• Primary Care Resilience Webinar series to connect, rebuild and move forward together
• Improving Together interactive (ITi) our one-stop-shop library of resources for primary care
• capturing and sharing insights, case studies and evidence
• producing guidance and implementation toolkits
• facilitation of Improvement Learning Networks, and
• practical QI and coaching support for GP Clusters from the Primary Care Quality Improvement Faculty (PCQIF).

How can you access resources and support?

Join us for our Primary Care Resilience Webinar series, where you will be able to connect with peers, take part in discussions on current topics and reflect on what this could mean for primary care and your practice. Topics for future webinars are based on your feedback.

Explore our Improving Together interactive to access improvement tools, materials and resources.

Access our case studies and find out how to share your project.

For more information, please contact us at his.pcpteam@nhs.scot.

Benefits

This programme aims to support GP clusters in their role to continuously improve the quality of care that people receive. GP clusters should do this by facilitating strong, collaborative relationships across GP clusters and localities with, at its heart; the intention of learning, developing and improving together for the benefit of local communities, as stated in Improving Together: A National Framework for Quality and GP Clusters in Scotland.

We are doing this through a range of engagement and learning opportunities.

• Completing a GP Cluster Working Learning Cycle to have a better understanding of the key components for GP cluster working, the current barriers and enablers and sharing examples or ideas that could be helpful for GP clusters and those supporting them. This learning cycle also aimed to promote local and national reflection on GP clusters. Read the GP Cluster Working Learning Cycle report where we have summarised our findings from this deep dive into GP clusters.

• Coordinating the Improving Together Advisory Group, which has representation of key stakeholders, including representatives from the national organisations.

• Developing Improving Together interactive, the one‐stop‐shop library of improvement tools, materials and resources for primary care.

• Organising networking sessions for cluster quality leads and practice quality leads. We are currently in the early planning stages of setting these sessions up for the coming months. Please register your interest in attending these sessions by contacting us at his.pcpteam@nhs.scot.

For any other information, please contact us at his.pcpteam@nhs.scot.

We do this by:

• Providing responsive quality improvement and leadership support local areas.
• Enabling networking opportunities across primary care. We are currently developing a range networks to support local quality improvement.

If you're interested in finding out more email his.pcpteam@nhs.scot.

We use evidence and local knowledge to inform the development of new models of care. Find out more about our work in:

• Community Treatment and Care services - supporting health and social care partnerships (HSCPs) to plan, test and deliver community treatment and care services. 
• Practice Administrative Staff Collaborative - improving GP practices and upskilling staff.
• SPSP in Primary Care - reducing the number of events which could cause avoidable harm from care delivered in any primary care setting.
• SPSP Medicines -  improving the safety for prescribing, assessing and distributing medicines.

We host Improving Together interactive, which is a one-stop-shop library of resources for people working in primary care. There you can find case studies which capture the learning from improvement work happening in primary care.

Join us for our Primary Care Resilience National WebEx series, to connect, rebuild and move forward together.