Councillor Phil Bateman said today “I have received this information from David Loughton CBE the Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton Trust. I know that it will interest a lot of people in Wednesfield North as many of my constituents are patients at the Alfred Squire Medical Centre where your doctors practice.”
David Loughton informs me that “Vertical integration is a care model that is used in North America, Spain and other parts of the world where primary care physicians and their teams work in an integrated fashion with providers of secondary and community care and are part of one single organisation.
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) is currently working with three Wolverhampton GP practices on a ground breaking project which will see these practices being integrated into the Trust. The population base for the pilot is nearly 23,500 patients.
It is hoped that this will increase access to services, provide better care and reduce red tape between the surgeries and the Trust.
The practices involved in this exciting pilot are:
• Alfred Squire Road Health Centre
• Lea Road Medical Practice
• MGS Medical Practice (Bradley Health Centre, Low Hill Health Centre, Ruskin Road Surgery)
There are still some formal stages to be completed before this pilot can move forward but we anticipate these to be completed by the end of May with the practices becoming part of the Trust from Wednesday 1 June 2016.
Through the practices becoming a part of RWT we can look more effectively at how we remove some of those processes to make the system work more efficiently and help to generally improve services. There is also a lot of knowledge and skills that can be shared on both sides and we can provide greater training and support opportunities for staff at the practices.
This pilot is being driven by the GPs and senior clinicians at RWT who are working in the best interest of their patients and provide value for money for the tax payer. For many years we have known that care co-ordination between different parts of the health system is not as good as should be. By working hand in glove with local respected GPs, we think we can deliver a much better patient experience and increase value for the tax payer.
We know that any change can be unsettling for our patients and staff but we are working with our GP partners and with patient groups, staff and the general public to make sure we keep everyone informed. The surgeries will be writing to all patients before the pilot begins and we will keep people updated throughout.
We know you will have many questions about this new way of working and we have a number of frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) on our website which we hope will help you find out more about this exciting project.
Please go to http://www.royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk/primarycare/ for further information.
There will be posters going up at each GP practice as well as this website being updated and announcements in the local press. We are already engaging with the Patient Groups from each practice and taking on board feedback. If you have a comment or question you can get in touch by emailing: RWTPrimaryCare@nhs.net “
