The head of the NHS is resting his hopes on a limited form of GP practice co-operation amid growing resistance to creating large organisations, it has been reported.
There is a “huge appetite” for the primary care home idea, according to NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens.
The idea is reported to be smaller than the multi-specialty care provider idea.
It is being backed by the National Association of Primary Care and involves practices representing populations of up to 50,000 working together. The aim is that they establish service hubs to provide extended services through multi-disciplinary teams.
There are currently 15 pilot sites.
Speaking to the Health Service Journal, Mr Stevens said: “There’s a huge latent appetite for something like primary care home – not necessarily full blown integration between practices and super-partnerships, but something that is in the middle ground between individual practice sovereignty and complete pooling of assets and employment and the contract.”
He said the primary care investment could be targeted at schemes of this kind – enabling additional staff, such as clinical pharmacists, to support groups of practices rather than individual practices.
He said that “thousands of practices are going to be involved in team working with other practices in a structured way.”
He added: “I don’t think thousands of practices will necessarily be in a full blown Multi-Specialty Care Provider contract over the next 36 months.”
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