General practice is the name given in various nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, to the services provided by General practitioners. In some nations, such as the US, similar services may be described as family medicine or primary care. The term Primary Care in the UK may also include services provided by community pharmacy, optometrist, dental surgery and community hearing care providers. The balance of care between primary care and secondary care - which usually refers to hospital based services - varies from place to place, and with time. In many countries there are initiatives to move services out of hospitals into the community, in the expectation that this will save money and be more convenient.
NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly funded healthcare system in Scotland. It operates 14 territorial NHS Boards across Scotland, seven special non-geographic health boards and NHS Health Scotland.
Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust runs Yeovil District Hospital in Yeovil, Somerset, England. It provides acute care for a population of about 180,000, people living in South Somerset, North and West Dorset, and parts of Mendip. The hospital admits around 30,000 inpatients or day cases each year and treats more than 90,000 people in the outpatient appointments. Approximately 40,000 people are treated in Accident and Emergency and 1,300 babies are born in the Maternity Unit each year.
North Bristol NHS Trust is a National Health Service trust providing community healthcare and hospital services to Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, England. The trust has over 8,000 staff delivering healthcare across Southmead Hospital, Cossham Hospital and the Bristol Centre for Enablement, and the local communities.. Medical teaching facilities are provided in association with the University of the West of England, Bristol University and the University of Bath.
Virgin Care is a private provider of publicly funded community health and social services, and has been commissioned by the National Health Service and Local Authorities in England since 2006.
SSP Health is the largest provider of primary care GP services in the North West of England, one of only three such organisations in England serving more than 100,000 patients.
Nairn Town and County Hospital and Primary Care Centre, also known as the Town and County Hospital, is a healthcare facility located in Nairn, Scotland. It serves a population of around 14,000 people living in the Nairn and Ardersier area and is managed by NHS Highland.
Out-of-hours services are the arrangements to provide access to healthcare at times when General Practitioner surgeries are closed; in the United Kingdom this is normally between 6.30pm and 8am, at weekends, at Bank Holidays and sometimes if the practice is closed for educational sessions.
The Modality Partnership is a large GP partnership formed in 2009. Such large practices are often described as a "super partnership". According to the King's Fund in 2016 it was one of England’s largest super-practices. In 2018 it had about 400,000 patients and was thought to be the largest practice in England.
Healthcare in Kent is now the responsibility of eight Clinical Commissioning Groups: Canterbury and Coastal; Dartford Gravesham and Swanley; Medway; South Kent Coast;Swale; Thanet; West Kent; Ashford.
10 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) - one for each of Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs - organise the delivery of NHS services within Greater Manchester. The chief executive of the corresponding local authorities are to take over the CCG accountable officer role on a phased dual basis, forming a “single commissioning function” integrated with local government.
Healthcare in the West Midlands is now the responsibility of five Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG): Birmingham and Solihull; Sandwell and West Birmingham; Dudley; Wolverhampton; and Walsall.
Healthcare in Lancashire is now the responsibility of 7 Clinical Commissioning Groups covering Blackpool, Chorley and South Ribble, East Lancashire, Fylde and Wyre, Greater Preston, Lancaster North and West Lancashire. From 1 April 2017 32 GP practices from Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group will merge with Lancashire North CCG to form Morecambe Bay CCG.
Babylon Health is a health service provider that provides remote consultations with doctors and health care professionals via text and video messaging through its mobile application.. The subscription private healthcare services opened in the UK in 2013 and have since been expanded internationally to Rwanda, Canada and China. In the UK Babylon's NHS services cover more than 40,000 registered user-patients which has caused controversial disputes over NHS funding models.
Healthcare in Yorkshire from 2016 was the responsibility of 19 Clinical Commissioning Groups covering:
Sutton Homes of Care is one of six vanguard projects focussed on ‘Enhanced health in care homes’ established under the Five Year Forward View in 2015.
Hope Citadel Healthcare CIC is a Community interest company based in Greater Manchester.
Social prescribing is when health professionals refer patients to support in the community, in order to improve their health and wellbeing. The concept has gained support in the NHS organisations of the United Kingdom as well as in Ireland and the Netherlands.
GP Federations became popular among English General practitioners after 2010 as a means to exploit the opportunities - or mitigate the threats - posed by the Five Year Forward View proposals in the English NHS which envisaged delivering primary care at a larger scale than the traditional GP list. It is widely believed that ‘Practices cannot survive on their own – they have to look at ways of making themselves stronger.’ 15 sites were selected in December 2015 to test new enhanced primary care models serving populations of 30,000 to 50,000 patients. Some, but by no means all, Clinical Commissioning Groups have given financial support to encourage the formation of federations.
