Celebrating success of primary / secondary care collaboration

More than 80 projects aimed at improving the way primary and secondary care work together have now been completed, with lots more on the way.

Better integration between consultants in departments across Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) and GP Practices in South Notts and Nottingham City is helping to reduce unnecessary workload shift and improve communication and understanding between primary and secondary care.

Last month, consultants, GPs and other health partners came together for an event hosted by Notts LMC to celebrate the success of the integration work to date, raise awareness and hear the audience’s views about how further improvements can be made.

Working together helped build mutual trust between consultants and GPs, giving each a greater understanding about the daily challenges they faced and how small changes could make a huge difference to the efficiency and effectiveness of each other’s daily work.

Quick wins

The integration work first started informally in September 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. From an initial focus on ‘quick wins’, such as simplifying communication and greater use of internal hospital referrals. the project has grown considerably. There are now weekly meetings involving NUH, GPs, Notts LMC and the Place-based Partnerships (PBPs), in addition to task and finish groups tackling specific issues and active, live problem-solving.

The work here in Nottingham is ahead of the game compared to many Trusts around the country with the volume of collaborative work ongoing with primary care.

So much so, it is being held up as an exemplar nationally.

In May, Husein Mawji, GP & Clinical Director, Nottingham City PBP and Mark Simmonds, NUH Deputy Medical Director were invited to present details about the integration work through the NHS Confederation. This has already prompted numerous contacts from colleagues from NHS trusts across the country eager to find out more.

For more information, contact Kelly Jandrell, Integration Project Lead at NUH at kelly.jandrell@nhs.net