A new age for urgent primary health care in south-west Essex

The East of England Ambulance Service is working with Take Care Now, a leading independent  health provider, to deliver the out-of-hours service on behalf of South West Essex Primary Care Trust. Out of hours applies to the time the GP practices are closed; 6.30pm - 8am the following morning, all weekend and bank holidays.

If someone has a medical problem for which they would normally visit their GP about that cannot wait until their practice is next open, all they have to do is ring their GP practice. They can listen to the recorded information which will give them either the out-of-hours phone number or divert automatically to the out-of-hours service.

A telephone assessment will then be made by a senior professional or GP based in the locality. Advice may be given over the phone, but if a face-to-face consultation is needed, an appointment will be made either in the patient’s own home or at one of three primary care centres located in the south-west area. The aim is for improved continuity of care and communication.

Although members of the public who use out-of-hours will probably notice very little difference to the service currently provided, this venture will see many improvements including a wider range of GPs, nurses and emergency care practitioners - specially trained paramedics - on mobile duty.

Adrian Maasz, the ambulance service's general manager for primary care, said: "This service is about the right person providing the right treatment at the right time in the right place and we can commit to that by provding clinicians best suited to deal with patients’ conditions.

”A GP will be on duty in the area at all times, but it may be that a condition presented by a patient can be best dealt with by an emergency care practitioner or a nurse. Patients can be reassured that they will receive the most appropriate level of care for their needs ranging from advice over the phone to a doctor coming to see them at home."

  David Cocks, chief executive of Take Care Now, said: "We are delighted to be working with the East of England Ambulance Service to ensure residents in south-west Essex receive high standards of care when their GP surgery is closed.

"There are great benefits to  this partnership and this new service is about providing out-of-hours care that fully meets the needs of the community.”

Dr Jon Tuppen, a local GP who has been involved with the new contract, added: "GPs want to be sure that their patients will receive the highest standards of care at all times. We are confident that the new contract will deliver the service we want our patients to receive."

ENDS

The East of England Ambulance Service was formed on July 1, 2006, when the former Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire, Essex and East Anglian Ambulance Services combined to form one Trust.

EEAS serves Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk - a combined population of about 5.4 million living in an area of about 7,500 square miles.

It has more than 3,700 staff and an annual income of more than £189m. In 2006-07 it responded to 517,473 emergency incidents and provided more than 1.4 million non-urgent patient transport journeys. The Trust also provides out-of-hours GP services to patients in some parts of the region.

The corporate headquarters is based at Bury St Edmunds, with locality offices in Bedford, Chelmsford and Norwich. The board is chaired by Maria Ball, with Hayden Newton interim chief executive.

South West Essex Primary Care Trust (PCT) was set up in October 2006 and holds the entire NHS budget for Basildon, Billericay, Brentwood, Wickford and Thurrock.

The PCT is responsible for ensuring more than 420,000 local people receive the care they need, want and deserve.

Every single day it spends more than £1.5million on providing health services.

Its role is to:

•           commission (buy) the most effective hospital treatments

•           ensure health services are provided as conveniently as possible

•           ensure the care provided by GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists reaches the highest possible standards

•           buy services that help local people take care of and improve their own health (for example Stop Smoking services).

TCN (Take Care Now Ltd) is a UK-based independent healthcare provider that works in partnership with the NHS to provide efficient and cost effective healthcare services. TCN's track record of developing unique care models has enabled risk sharing with PCTs and allows efficient delivery of bespoke healthcare solutions. TCN's mission is to provide excellence in independent healthcare solutions.