GP-led 'family care networks' are the future, claims report
Laura McCardle
Thursday, February 20, 2014
A leading health charity is calling for the creation of local "family health networks" of health professionals led by GPs, in order to improve the wellbeing of children and families.
The Kings Fund has published a report, Commissioning and funding general practice: making the case for family care networks, which proposes the new model, claiming it would radically improve outcomes.
The report calls on GPs to strengthen their role as providers and co-ordinators of care and work collaboratively with other health professionals, including health visitors and social workers, in a bid to provide better joined-up and more flexible care in the locality.
It also suggests that the model should focus squarely on a set of outcomes agreed with commissioners such as improvements in population health and quality of clinical care, rather than on how services are delivered.
The King's Fund chief executive Chris Ham, who was one of the report's authors, said: “This new funding and commissioning model for primary care could offer GPs an important opportunity to lead the way in finding new and innovative ways of working.
“At a time when NHS budgets are increasingly under pressure and the proportion spent on general practice is in decline, these proposals could bring money into general practice if GPs take responsibility for providing and co-ordinating a range of services.”
Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, welcomed the report but said further reforms are required to improve the experience of vulnerable children and their families.
Her comments come as 4Children published a survey of 2,221 adults, which reveals that only 33 per cent of people think GPs are family friendly.
She said: “Parents tell us that they struggle to find the holistic health support or treatment they need, which means that children continue to have symptoms of poor health treated, rather than the root causes.
“In order to turn around our late intervention culture to one that focuses on prevention rather than cure, we need to see GPs and health professionals pooling funding and creating strong partnerships beyond the health community.
“Only by working alongside these services which provide both universal and targeted support to families across a broad range of issues can we prevent health problems escalating and offer families the kind of joined up help they may need.”
