NHS Camden - Primary and urgent care strategy

Primary and urgent care strategy

The primary and urgent care strategy consultation has now closed. Thank you to everyone who took the time to give us your views or to attend one of the 30+ meetings during the consultation period. The final report from the consultation is now available. If you would like a copy sent to you please contact haveyoursay@camdenpct.nhs.uk or telephone 020 3317 2857/2886. If you gave us your name and address you will receive a copy of the report by post.

Following on from this consultation and report, NHS Camden is planning for four polyclinics in the borough. The public will be asked for their views on these plans in the summer of 2010.

Thank you for helping us evaluate our primary and urgent care consultation. NHS Camden received 53 evaluation forms about the primary and urgent care consultation which represents 16% of respondents to the consultation, well over our target of 10% or 30 people.

The majority of people who filled in a consultation evaluation said they would probably take part in future consultations (74%). This can be seen to provide an overall positive assessment of the success of the consultation.

The evaluation report is available here

What was the consultation about?

NHS Camden wants to transform the way you receive primary and urgent health care. Making sure local people get world class healthcare is the top priority for NHS Camden. People in Camden already have some of the best health services in the country.

The primary and urgent care strategy explains our proposals for primary care services in Camden. It sets out what services exist at the moment and how we would like to improve them.

What is primary care?

The vast majority of healthcare is provided not in hospitals but in the community by primary care services. In Camden this includes about 800,000 visits each year to GPs.

By primary care we mean the health services people use either in the community or at home and which is usually a patient’s first point of contact with health services. This could be your GP, dentist, local pharmacy or an urgent care centre. Primary care services include the following:

• service from your GP practice
• out of hours GP services
• NHS dental services
• pharmacies including services for minor ailments
• urgent care centres
• community based nursing teams
• rehabilitation and rapid response services
• community health services for children, including: health visiting, school nursing and specialist services for children with disabilities and special needs
• NHS Direct
• podiatry
• physiotherapy
• occupational therapy

What is urgent care?

Urgent care is any care you may need which is unplanned and for which you don’t have an appointment.

Many local people use Accident and Emergency (A&E) to treat their immediate health needs instead of going to a GP. Recent studies have shown, both locally and nationally, that over half of people attending A&E are using the service because they think they will get better treatment, or because they aren’t registered with a local GP or because they have not been able to get an appointment with their own GP.