Pilot Polyclinics expected to get go-ahead
Commissioners from all 31 PCTs in London are expected to give the go-ahead next month to pilot Polyclinics. Each is likely to cost in the region of £20m. The Polyclinics would be built next year and start treating patients by 2010.
By Norma Beavers
Commissioners from all 31 PCTs in London are expected to give the go-ahead next month to pilot Polyclinics. Each is likely to cost in the region of £20m. The Polyclinics would be built next year and start treating patients by 2010. Speaking at Primary Care 2008, a healthcare conference held at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre, Heather O’Meara, Chief Executive of the London-wide Polyclinics Development Programme and Chief Executive of Redbridge PCT, unveiled a complex looking vision of how Polyclinics would look. The artist’s impression drew questions from the audience of health practitioners and managers who said they were confused about how patients would negotiate the maze-like Polyclinics system.
O’Meara quietened fears by assuring health managers that, “In all cases GPs would still be the main link and would guide the patient through the Polyclinic system. We expect people to use their GP as they currently do, that will not change.”
The Polyclinics concept was thought up by Lord Ara Darzi, a leading cancer surgeon, who unveiled the plan for the London Strategic Health Authority last year. Prime Minister Gordon Brown then asked Darzi, then a health minister, to lead a reorganisation of the NHS in England.
Under the plans each London borough would have five polyclinics each serving a population of 50k. O’Meara warned that Polyclinics should not be confused with GP-led health centres because they are not going to be the same thing. Distinguishing the two, she said each Polyclinic would offer exactly the same list of core services for patients. This would include primary care, community services, pharmacy, outpatients, diagnostics and health education. In contrast GP-led health centres offer different core services and the range of diagnostic services they offer are not the same from one building to another.
Four models of Polyclinic are being discussed:
1. a main building providing services but surrounded by GP satellites
2. a Polyclinic located at a hospital site
3. GPs located inside a Polyclinic
4. GP co-op located inside a Polyclinic.
A key challenge is to decide the future of maternity care and how maternity services can fit into the Polyclinic vision. “It is something we still have to think through and we have to plan a vision for maternity,” said O’Meara. Another challenge will be community pharmacy – especially since pharmacies will be located inside polyclinics. “Unlike GPs, pharmacists do not have patient lists so there is a challenge there for pharmacists to organize themselves to win business,” said O’Meara.
Londoners were consulted about the polyclinics plan and a survey shows 51 per cent of people and organisations were in favour of amalgamating almost all GP practices into 150 polyclinics, with 29 per cent against and 20 per cent undecided. More than three-quarters of respondents said GP surgeries should be open for extended hours.
If London PCTs approve the London plan Polyclinics will begin the process of refocusing the NHS on prevention, work to bring equality to health care and improve accessibility. O’Meara says she is firmly behind Polyclinics as a means of delivering care closer to home, promoting health and well-being and providing integrated services.
London’s PCTs will need to look at how they can best commission services for Polyclinics. This may mean commissioning separate services or commissioning an organisation that will provide all services under a contract. Contenders will include GPs in partnership, joint ventures between the private sector and GP partnerships, and private and voluntary sector organisations, O’Meara said. “We may also see joint ventures with Foundation Trusts.”