Primary Care Networks (PCNs)

Three major pieces of work have been published recently:

• The NHS Long Term Plan,
• The GP Partnership Review and
• The GP Contract changes for April 2019 and beyond.

Individually these would have a significant impact on GPs and their practices but taken together they will have the most significant change that we have seen for many years and potentially even greater than the 2004 contract.

The key issue now is that the commitments detailed in these documents are delivered in full, with the minimum of red tape, so they can truly make a difference to those who work at the coal face and we start to address the issues of workload, workforce and financial risk.

Linking into this is the development of Primary Care Networks and the work that practices will need to undertake in the short and long term to make these a success.  We recognise  there is a huge amount of information available to practices and that it can feel overwhelming, we have therefore created this page so that practices have one place to access all information relating to PCNs and where possible we will provide the LMC view.

There are a number of documents & guidance available we have taken these and summarised them which you can access via the various links below:

• What is a PCN?  
• PCN Information Resources  
• PCN DES Agreement & Requirements 
• PCN DES Guidance  
• Network Agreement
• Data Sharing Agreement
• Financial & Legal Opinions on PCNs  
• PCN Funding  
• PCN Workforce
• Clinical Pharmacists Transfer Deadline  
• Timeframe for PCN Development  
• PCN DES Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme Guidance

Useful Resources:

• Social Prescribing
• A range of Multi Disciplinary Team materials available for practices covering the new roles within PCNs