Day 30: Digital is HERE. Are we ready?

So today is another full on day.

Kids - check

Morning Clinic - check

Local PCN meeting - check

Afternoon Clinic - check

Evening event with LPC Community Pharmacy Contractors - check

The big news is the arrival of GP at Hand in Birmingham City. We all know of GP at Hand and Babylon but are we really prepared for this new digital era?

As we understand things GP at Hand will be phased around the Midlands locality over the next few months. Our CCG team have asking questions over governance and patient safe guarding concerns, no much information as come back from the digital healthcare provider. It all makes me very nervous for so many reasons but my main concern is our vulnerable patients. What happens if people need more individualised care? Is there infrastructure and processes to manage this? I don't know. We just don't know. Do patients fully understand the registration process? Could there be further chaos at our reception desks when people realise they are no longer registered with us because they click-on to be registered with GP at Hand?

I want to make people aware of the "Digital-first Primary Care: Policy consultation on patient registration, funding and contracting rules". Please have a read. It's not too bad a document. If you have concerns like me or opinions on the matter please RESPOND. Whilst your response may not dramatically make a different, as we know the digital agenda is so strong . It just might make enough noise for someone to take note, there may even be some space for reconsideration on the finer detail.

Digital-first Primary Care: Policy includes proposals to:

• Amend the out-of-area registration rules so that where a practice exceeds a threshold number of out-of-area patients in any CCG, they would separately be awarded a local APMS contract in that CCG;

• Change the allocations system to enable quarterly recalculation of CCG funding to reflect patient movements;

• Amend the new patient premium so that it is only paid if a patient remains registered with a practice for a defined period;

• Allow new digital-first practices to be established in the most under-doctored geographies to increase overall GP capacity and address the inverse care law in general practice.

So basically once the registration threshold conditions are met, could this digital offering make other practices vulnerable through reduction of list size? Stronger power for local tender bids? Reduction in financial stability for some small practices?

I do love tech and I think for some people GP at Hand will suit them. I think some conditions could be managed via online consultation but a very few. It is so crucial that everyone is aware of the implications of widening opportunity of digital healthcare providers and the possibility of exploring the concept in collaboration with local teams. Could there be any mutual benefits?

***PLEASE RESPOND BY 23 AUGUST 2019***

#DigitalFirst #GPatHand #Consultation

---

LINK :

https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/digital-first-primary-care-policy/user_uploads/digital-first-primary-care-consultation.pdf

https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/digital-first-primary-care-policy/