On 7 January, the NHS long-term plan was published setting out key ambitions for the service over the next decade. We believe it to be a coherent, sustainable care strategy for the UK that can help meet the ever changing and complex needs of patients across the country. The plan is very much harmonious with our strategy for care delivery in each of our specialty areas.

Improving care outside hospitals is one of the headline commitments in the plan. DMC has a particular interest in Primary Care and Community Services, both areas of which stand to receive more funding. The plan outlines a strategy of joining practices together to create ‘primary care networks’. These will be groups of neighbouring practices typically covering 30–50,000 people. While maintaining their existing contracts, practices in a given group will also enter network contracts through which they can access more resources to assist in their proactive managing of population health, as well as digitise their service. DMC took over our first network of practices in April 2019 in Medway CCG.

Read mobilisation case studies here.

The plan commits to developing more fully integrated community services. This will involve developing multidisciplinary teams, including GPs, pharmacists, district nurses, and allied health professionals. We are fully aligned with this; our dermatology and MSK services are consultant led and comprised of multidisciplinary teams.