What is the future for primary care networks?
An analysis has identified some 334 organisations in England calling themselves ‘primary care networks’ operating across 195 clinical commissioning groups, significantly more than the 216 GP federations.
This is considerably more than the 73 primary care networks identified by a similar HSJ analysis carried out last year.
Primary care networks are described as clusters of GP practices organising primary and community services around patient populations of 30,000 to 50,000.
The growth in the networks is in line with the NHS England policy in favour of primary care networks.
Clinical commissioning groups have earmarked some funding for scaled up primary care providers, and the extended access funding £6 per head has been focused towards developing ‘hubs’ across networks (or clusters) of practices.
Further information
HSJ: Primary care networks – the new show in town needs a second act