Keywords
Citation
(2003), "UK. More than £100 million for 24/7 primary care", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 16 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2003.06216dab.004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited
UK. More than £100 million for 24/7 primary care
UK
More than £100 million for 24/7 primary care
Keywords: Primary care, NHS Direct
Also in March, Health Minister, John Hutton set out the Government's plans for comprehensive high-quality out-of-hours (OOH) primary care services, where services are available through a single call to NHS Direct. More than £100 million over three years has been allocated as part of the reconfiguration of OOH services envisaged under the new General Medical Services (GMS) contract. The aim is to shift responsibility for arranging out-of-hours services from individual GPs to Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).
The £100 million investment will help PCTs work towards providing integrated out-of-hours care where patients make a single call to NHS Direct for OOH help. NHS Direct will be connected and fully integrated into a fully staffed out-of-hours emergency network, with GPs, nurses, Allied Health Professionals, consultants, paramedics, pharmacists, walk-in centre staff, call handlers and NHS Direct teams all playing their part. This is part of The NHS Plan, which states that by December 2004, a single phone call to NHS Direct will be a one-stop gateway to out-of-hours healthcare, passing on calls, where necessary, to the appropriate GP co-operative or deputising service.
Mr Hutton was speaking at the National Association of General Practice Co-operatives, where he also announced that the Department of Health is working with the professions and the NHS Confederation to see how the current accreditation process for OOH providers can become fully integrated with the new GMS contract arrangements if it is accepted. This will reduce bureaucracy and reinforce the fact that OOH care is a central function of the NHS as the role of GPs and their workloads are reduced.