The Primary Care Networks are separated into three localities; PCN East, PCN South, and PCN West. Each PCN is led by a Clinical Director.
As part of our hosting service, we provide additional leadership and support in the following areas:
Primary Care Networks (PCNs) were first established in 2019 and involves Practices working together as groups alongside community, social care, mental health, pharmacy and voluntary and hospital services to deliver care to the local population. They have grown exponentially in the last 4 years.
PCNs build upon existing services, but can enable a more personalised, integrated approach to proactive care. The PCNs typically have 30,000 to 50,000 patients when the Practices are grouped together, but some are a little more or a little less too.
We have a number of Social Prescribers across the South Tyneside PCNs, supplied by various providers, who support patients with social issues and healthy behaviour change, enabling them to take ownership and control of their own wellbeing to improve the patient’s overall health.
These fully qualified musculoskeletal practitioners act as a First point of contact for musculoskeletal issues such as knee pain, back pain, shoulder pain etc. Patients can contact their Practice and be booked in to see someone very quickly, who will assess and either refer or provide guidance/advice/exercises to help self-manage their condition
These fully qualified podiatrists act as a First point of contact for foot problems such as ingrown toenails, foot pain, infections etc. Patients can contact their Practice and be booked in to see someone very quickly, who will assess and either refer to secondary care, or provide basic treatment or guidance to help self-manage their condition.
We have a growing team of PCN Pharmacists and Pharmacy Techs who support medication optimisation and reviews within Practices to ensure patients are getting the best out of their medication and they also complete patient medication safety audits too. Their support is essential to the Practices for completion of the DES requirements, with offers being tailored to individual Practices where possible as well.
This team supports patients with new diagnoses of Cancer completing a non-clinical holistic review. They signpost and offer various support at diagnoses, 3 months, 6 months and 9 months. They are a highly regarded service who are really supporting our patients through difficult times. They also support patients in attending their 2 week wait appointments should there be potential for the patient not to attend.
Our current 6 PCN Mental Health Practitioners (MHPs) support patients with chronic mental health conditions, who are not suitable for secondary care. They can refer onto the most appropriate department e.g., IAPT, or can offer brief interventions. The appointments are bookable by Practices, and reviews handled by the MHPs. This has been a well utilised service so far with great mental health support provided by our MHPs.
