Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and Practices

An expanding workforce

100 years of General Practice and the future
“My father set up as a GP in Airedale, Castleford in about 1923 and a house was built for him by the local colliery where he was employed as its doctor. The 1920s and 30s were times of poverty and the great depression. He employed a collector to gather in his fees (before the NHS), although patients were often too poor to pay. His first home visits were made on a Douglas motor bike. My father died in 1967. On the day of his funeral the coal miners came out and doffed their caps as the cortege passed.” Dr Richard Sloan
“100 years of General Practice.” NHS England website. Retrieved 7th September 2022.
NHS England » 100 years of General Practice

General practice has gone through many iterations since the early pioneers. Some important recent changes include:

An expanding workforce
An important change is how General Practice is now being built on the involvement of new healthcare professionals and expanding the roles of clinical staff including nurses. This enables the creation of more dynamic, responsive, multi-skilled teams, each able to contribute to improved approaches to patient care.

This expansion can bring great advantages to patients and ensure a sustainable workforce while still maintaining the personable touch so apparent in the story above. This is occurring in primary care networks (groupings of practices) as well as directly within practices. The different teams in general practice are described below.

Technology
A recent change is a drive with digital technology where patients can easily access the advice, support and treatment they need using digital and online tools. This is considered further below.

Research
Evidence based medicine is based on the latest research. You can help support research in the UK. How you can do this and what evidence based medicine means is covered below.