GP practices in Luton have worked together to provide more than 3,000 extra appointments a year including halving the number of appointments lost due to patient non-attendance.
As well as freeing up appointments, the Primary Care Network (PCNs) model has led to friends and family satisfaction with services being positive nine times out of ten, while complaints have fallen by 12 per cent and £50,000 has been saved.
To achieve this, the GPs made a number of changes including altering the types of healthcare professionals in the practice, offering alternative appointments where appropriate and introducing long term conditions clinics.
PCNs are one of the new national approaches unveiled in the NHS’ long term plan this week.
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