Join the 'Primary Care Conversation' to help transform services

The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) is working with health and care partners and local people to transform primary care services across BOB. These services include general practice, community pharmacy, optometry (eye care) and dentistry.

There has been an increase in demand on all health and care services, and Primary Care will need to change to ensure that responsive and personalised care can continue to be provided as required.

This work is underpinned by the ICB's Integrated Care Strategy and Five-Year Joint Forward Plan published earlier in 2023. These set out an ambition to further develop neighbourhood teams by integrating the work of primary care and community services to improve access and people's experience of using services to provide better patient care.

The ICB has already started to review the current state of primary services with health and care partners. It is now working with them to develop a primary care strategy and implementation plan for a phased roll out later in 2024. 

As part of this programme of work, the 'Primary Care Conversation' has been launched, asking the public to share their views on primary care services via an online survey. The survey is open until 31 January 2024. Your views will inform the strategy being developed.

The work aims to:

• build a shared understanding of the current state of primary and community services and present a case for change
• build a consensus on the future vision for primary care and its integration with community services
• design the way this care is delivered (operating model) and other tools, such as digital healthcare 
• test the practical application of the new model through projects
• capture learning and build capability for phased roll-out of the final strategy.

Dr Abid Irfan, Director of Primary Care at BOB ICB, said: "Our vision is to transform primary care across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West by integrating primary and community teams. This will allow our patients to receive a wider range of care to meet their needs and to deliver better outcomes.

"This would include developing multi-disciplinary neighbourhood teams with GPs working closely with district and community nurses supported by care navigators, physiotherapists and other health and care professionals and the voluntary sector to provide high quality care.

"Primary care services across the country and in particular general practice have faced challenges in recent years with difficulty in recruiting staff to meet increasing demand from patients. It is important that general practice can build capacity by working with other health and care professionals more closely to manage this demand so their skills are focussed on where best they can support patients.

"We are also looking very closely at pharmacy, optometry and dentistry provision and understand the challenges these services face locally. We are working hard to develop ways to support these services and the role they will play in a more integrated approach."

Dr Irfan added: "We are still developing our strategy to achieve these ambitions but there is now a great opportunity for local people to tell us about their experiences of using primary care which will feed into our plans for the future of these services – so I urge the public to take the time to respond and share their views with us."

Printed copies of the survey can be requested by calling 030011 234 465 or emailing engagement.BOBICS@nhs.net.