Submission to the Health Select Committee: Primary Care Inquiry

There is growing evidence that ‘person centred, coordinated care’ can improve service user experience and ensure the most appropriate use of limited healthcare resources. National Voices believes that primary care should be better supported to deliver more person centred, coordinated care.

Person centred primary care involves:

• Coordinated care
• Care and Support Planning, taking a House of Care approach
• Multidisciplinary teams and joint working across services
• Partnership with the voluntary and community sectors
• Training and development for staff in person centred approaches
• Recognition that people have different levels of health literacy, and strategies to tackle this
• Harnessing digital technology to ensure better access to health care and support, and to enable people to better self-manage.

Person centred primary care also offers increased flexibility of consultation times, develops ways of ensuring that services are co-designed and meets the needs of local people’, works closely with community pharmacists to provide seamless support, identifies and supports carers, and works to ensure smooth transitions between hospital and community.

Primary care, and the work of primary care professionals, is vital to achieve person centred care. However, the constraints of current models and funding prevent this from being fully realised. New models of primary care will not only support a more person centred approach, but, we believe, ease the current pressure on GPs through more multidisciplinary working, colocation of services, and through fully utilising a wide range of approaches and support that help people to manage their own conditions where appropriate.

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