This document summarizes plans for collaboration between 10 GP practices in Darlington, England covering 94,000 patients. It discusses using funding from the Prime Minister's Challenge Fund (PMCF) to improve patient care through greater collaboration between primary care providers, the local Foundation Trust hospital, and the local council. Key goals include increasing flexibility and access to care, improving management of elderly patients, and evaluating options for expanded hours on weekends. Challenges mentioned include increasing patient demand, limited resources, change management difficulties, and addressing legal/data sharing issues when patients receive care from multiple providers. Support is requested in areas like communications, evaluation, and learning from other successful collaborations.

1. Caring for Darlington Beyond
Tomorrow
Prime Ministers Challenge Fund
Darlington Provider Collaborative

2. Who we are
• 10 GP practices covering 94k patient
population
• All on the same IT system
• We have a Foundation Trust based in the town
• Close links with Darlington Borough Council
• We are currently progressing discussions
around formal collaboration and federation.

3. BCF
PMCF
New GP
Contract
How it all fits
together • We see the PMCF as a
key lever for the change
needed in Primary Care
to help deliver
improvements in many
areas of patient care.
• It will enable Darlington
Primary Care to work
with the other big
providers to improve
patient care.
What it doesn’t do:
• Is enable GP practices to
be open all hours – we
believe locally that this
will be detrimental and
un-sustainable for our
local health economy.

4. What we hope to achieve
4 Key areas
• Give flexibility for patients to access health care in
Darlington
• To utilise inter-practice clinical experience thus
improving access and reducing variation
• To focus on proactive management of our Frail and
Elderly population with the implementation of an MDT
framework
• To look at the feasibility and appropriateness of
8-8 working and Saturday/Sunday services for the local
population

5. What else do we want to do
• Understand some of the barriers some clinicians have
with new ways of working but who are also the same
people struggling with the volume and complexity of
work.
• Work with our colleagues across other primary care
services especially pharmacy
• Work with the LAT to see how we can best use the
public investment in Primary Care services by reducing
unnecessary duplication of work without destabilising
businesses.
• Begin to map out how an integrated health care system
may look and work.

6. Whole System Collaboration and Integration
=

7. Where are we up to
• We now have sign up from all 11 GP practices in Darlington covering
100k patient population
• We have a steering group progressing the collaborative/federation
work.
• We have design teams in place who are working up the logistics of
our MDT across 4 organisations – primary care, CDDFT, TEWV &
DBC
• We are part of a working group with CDDFT looking at use of ED
and UCC during out of hours to analyse and evaluate how a change
to primary care access may help alleviate pressure.
• We have an understanding from the Health and Scrutiny committee
at DBC that there needs to be population support about these
changes and they need to themselves look at how they access and
use primary health services.

8. So…..
8
Better
Care
Fund
Challenge Fund
AT Support
“Collaborat
ion”
Improved
Patient
Experience
Better
Working
Conditions
for Primary

9. Elderly in
Acute
Hospital bed
Rapid Assessment
Base (request
diagnostics)
8-8 x 7 days
MDT
Community
Rapid
Response &
case
management
Top 5%
GP
practice
s
Nursi
ng
Hom
esLong Term Condition
Case management/Care
Planning/EOL
Self
Management
and patient
Crises
patient
Ambulanc
e 999
Life
threatening
Diagnosti
c rapid
access
pu
ll
pu
ll
By-
pass
A&E
Purple-;
Where PMCF
will help
support
Primary Care
to provide
this
integrated
care

10. What challenges do we have already
• Patient demand is ever increasing
• Need more clinical input, how to backfill with limited
resource
• Change management – typically takes 18 months…….!!!
• Timelines of contractual obligations (ES) of practices
against different timelines of PMCF/BCF
• Indemnity and other issues of patients being seen at
other practices – guidance
• Data sharing between organisations
• Media

11. What do we need…….
• Assurance that there is support locally, regionally
and nationally for changes that we will be
proposing
• Assistance with the media & public relations
• Help with evaluation of the work-streams
• Links with other areas of best practice – we are
keen to learn and try.
• Clarity as to the expectations of us as a pilot site –
our plans were an expression of interest not a
declaration of what we would be doing.

12. THANK YOU
Any Questions?