Your Additional Patient Services through your PCN

You are part of East Northants Primary Care Network, what does this mean for you?

Your Primary Care Network (PCN) consists of groups of local general practices working together, and in partnership with community, mental health, social care, pharmacy, hospital and voluntary services.

Working together means we can offer more personalised, holistic and coordinated health and social care approach and direct you to the right specialists.

East Northants PCN consists of 8 GP practices and supports 69,425 people. Our PCN includes the following practices:

• Harborough Field Surgery
• Parklands Surgery
• Higham Ferrers Surgery
• Spinney Brook Medical Centre
• The Cottons Medical Practice
• Marshalls Road Surgery
• The Meadows Surgery
• Nene Valley Surgery

Each PCN has a nominated GP who takes the role of Clinical Director and ensures the smooth running of the PCN. Our clinical Director is Dr Seamus Kelly. Dr Kelly is supported by our PCN Manager Rebecca Gane.

Our PCN Services

Being an East Northants PCN patient means you have access to the following services, many do not require you to see a GP first and can be easily booked into through your practice receptionists.

Here is some information on our services:

East Northants Enhanced Access

The PCN offers evening and Saturday appointments at its HUB sites, which are Harborough Field Surgery and The Cottons Medical Centre. The Services run Monday to Friday 6:30pm to 8pm, Saturday 9 am to 5pm.

The service offers:

• GP appointments – face to face or telephone
• First contact physiotherapy
• Smear Clinics
• Minor Illness Clinic – Minor illness, family planning, acute asthma and COPD, minor infections.
• Asthma and COPD clinics
• Menopause clinics – Menopause issues, medication and lifestyle advice.
• Paediatric Nurses – For children who have a new condition and not previously seen by a paediatric nurse. New conditions include – temperature, diarrhoea and vomiting, cough, wheezing, conjunctivitis, tonsilitis, ear infection, asthma, eczema, rashes and constipation.

To book into any of these services, please call your practice.

If you have booked into one of these services and can no longer attend, please contact your own practice to let them know.

If you wish to cancel outside of the hours of 8am to 6:30pm when your practice is closed then email northantsicb.eastnorthantspcn@nhs.net to cancel your appointment. This email is for cancelling appointment outside of regular hours only.

Social Prescribing Service

Our social prescribing team support people aged 18-64 years. The team aim to work with people to support them to live as independently as possible. They offer both face to face and telephone appointments.

They can support you to:

• Explore extra services that may improve health, wellbeing and independence.
• Access a range of non-medical activities and support groups provided by locally based, voluntary and community sector organisations.
• Offer debt advice and support access to financial help including benefits.
• Any housing issues (homelessness/eviction/mould/maintenance).

First Contact Physiotherapy Service

Our PCN offers a first contact physiotherapy service for people over the age of 18 years. You can access this service during the week either daytime, evening or Saturdays.

They can help with the following:

• Soft tissue/Muscle/tendon/ligament strains/sprains
• Muscle/soft tissue/joint pains
• Joint pain or injury
• Back/Neck Pain
• Postural pain/problems
• Osteoarthritis
• Tendonitis/tendinopathy e.g. Tennis elbow
• Minor Trauma e.g. Fall or sports injuries

Agewell Team

Our Agewell Team help support people aged 65 and over to stay well and live in their homes longer by offering holistic care whether social or those with both social and long-term medical conditions. They also support their families and carers.

The team is made up of a dedicated GP and care coordinators and collaborates with local organisations such as Age UK, Adult Social Care, Northants Carers and Northamptonshire Health Trust. This means we can support you to access services, support groups and equipment where appropriate.

The team support patients who have:

• Multiple medications
• Multiple long-term conditions
• Falls
• Reduced mobility
• Social isolation
• Difficulty completing everyday living tasks
• Cognitive impairment

Hospital Discharge Coordinator Support

Our PCN has a dedicated hospital discharge coordinator who supports practices by ringing patients over the age of 18 years that have had a hospital stay and been recently discharged from Kettering General hospital.

They will contact you to:

• Offer support or provide signposting to the most appropriate services based on need. This will include PCN, community and voluntary services.
• They ensure your practices have your hospital discharge summaries and letters.
• They ensure that you have been discharged with appropriate care plans in place, all medications, follow-up appointments and equipment has been organised, and chasing when an action has not been completed, ensuring that patients receive the correct care in an appropriate time frame.
• They ensure that you have been appropriately discharged from hospital and will feedback to the hospital discharge team if not.

Paramedics

We have a dedicated paramedic team for those aged 16 years and over and provides a non-emergency home visiting service for patients across the PCN. A GP will triage you to see if a paramedic visit is necessary.

The service is delivered by qualified paramedics who are skilled practitioners who work autonomously and use their enhanced clinical assessment and treatment skills, to provide first point of contact for patients presenting with:

• Respiratory infections
• Chest pains
• Ear, nose and throat issues
• Eyes infections and swellings
• Headaches/fainting episodes/minor head injuries
• Skin infections, rashes, bites and minor burns
• Abdominal issues
• Care home patients

Mental Health Team

The PCN had a dedicated mental health team comprising of adult and child Mental Health Practitioners and Talking therapies specialists. The team support people 5 to 65 years before they reach crisis point. They offer both face to face and telephone appointments.

The mental health team support those experiencing:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Body dysmorphia
• Obsession-compulsive disorder
• Panic attacks
• Agoraphobia
• Phobias
• Stress

Practice Care Coordinators

Each practice has a dedicated care coordinator who liaises between the practice and PCN Services. They support practice patients in accessing all services.

Safeguarding Team

The PCN has a dedicated safeguarding team who provide safeguarding administrative support to the practices within. The team will work alongside the Safeguarding leads from each practice to achieve a consistent, safe, and effective team approach to safeguarding. The team not only supports the practices but also the patients and have links into multiple organisations, to ensure a coordinated safeguarding approach.

The PCN takes safeguarding very seriously.

Information Governance and Data Sharing Agreements

The PCN have a Data Sharing Agreement and Data Privacy Impact Assessment in place between all member practices.