NEWS: New care model transforms local healthcare

As reported by GP Online, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB’s draft plans reveal a shift to a “virtual hospital” model, integrating acute and community care by 2026

It envisions development of ‘integrated neighbourhood teams’ as part of a move to a ‘virtual hospital approach’ that would strip away barriers between acute and community care and see ‘100% of our workforce being engaged in delivering acute care within the community setting’.

The document – which proposes new local five-year contracts for practices, with elements of patient care led by integrated multidisciplinary teams at scale – suggests full-scale implementation of the plans could be completed by 2026, with pilots starting later this year.

New care model

Funding for the healthcare overhaul could be found in part from a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ presented by ‘unprecedented investment in the new hospital programme’ – potentially worth almost £30bn nationally over the next decade – the document suggests.

The plans have emerged just weeks after NHS England revealed that it would ask a small number of ICBs to pilot ways to ‘optimise the general practice operating model’. GPonline has also revealed that PCNs are being offered seven-figure sums to pilot new models of care.

To drive through the sweeping changes required for the move to the new care model, the ICB has taken inspiration from Disney, Tesco and Amazon ‘to create a holistic approach that prioritises customer satisfaction, data-driven decision-making, innovation, employee engagement, and regional expansion with local sensitivity’. The document says NHS leaders should ’embrace the Disney philosophy of creating magical and memorable experiences for customers’ as part of a move to a more ‘customer-centric’ approach.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB plan says it would ‘underwrite the risk’ for GP practices of adopting the new model of care, calling for flexibility at ICB level to ‘introduce local contracts that would be supported by our practices and our LMC’.

NHS funding

It says: ‘These contracts would give parity to other providers in providing financial stability over a five-year period. We would expect clarity on delivery of outcomes, of population health improvement, and more emphasis on the caring of those who are high utilisers of healthcare, specifically complex people and families, and those individuals who are in their last two years of life.

‘To achieve this, practices need both the capacity and the capability to have the time needed to deal with patients with complexity. To do this we will move away from rewarding practices [for] achievement of prevention, and source additional capacity alongside GPs to provide funding through the investment.

‘We will provide additional capacity for some more routine GP appointment needs, through remote access. We will not require a patient to de-register from their GP and therefore not penalise the practice for allowing their patients to use other access points. We will encourage GPs and their wider teams to thrive. In recent years funding has flowed to practices via PCNs. We would like increased flexibility to, when appropriate, working either through PCNs or directly with practices, to ensure local circumstances are considered.’

The document describes the plans as a ‘transformative approach’ that would move ‘from traditional acute care to a community-based model to enhance accessibility, patient satisfaction, and operational efficiency’. It highlights key features including ‘digital engagement platforms, expanded community health services, and initiatives aimed at improving workforce satisfaction and professional development’.

Patient data

GP practices would be expected to share huge swathes of their patient data to support use of digital tools to ‘enhance patient care, streamline data sharing, and reduce costs’, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB plans suggest.

Key aims also include a focus on prevention and early detection of illness, with high-risk populations offered ‘personalised interventions to improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare utilisation’.

The document describes the ‘virtual hospital approach’ as meaning that care co-ordinators would be able to offer patients direct access to a range of services – including access to diagnostics and advice from consultants – without the need for GP referral.

The ICB said the document was a ‘discussion paper’ and ‘very much still a working draft’. A spokesperson confirmed that no plans had been confirmed at this stage and that the ICB would continue to consult with local partners including general practice.