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What we aim to achieve
Eccles Together in Health seeks to support a changed culture within primary care that fosters behaviours enabling both greater self-management and a general practice system that is highly responsive to and maximises its benefits with citizens.
One barrier to this is that many general practices feel overwhelmed by the volume of work that they face daily, while local people often feel frustrated by the accessibility of primary care.
What we do
We believe that not all solutions sit within the NHS or indeed the wider statutory sector, but also within social organisations and the strengths of the local population itself.
We are testing an approach with the practice in Eccles to enable local people to have a voice in general practice and, at the same time, address one of the main challenges facing general practice in managing demand.
We are bringing local people and the practices to work together in small improvement teams on three issues of shared concern, to improve access and reduce demand:
- dealing with minor ailments – by promoting the minor ailments scheme using word of mouth
- reducing missed appointments – by texting carefully worded appointment reminders to people attending clinics run by practice nurses
- piloting ‘asthma parties’ (group consultations) for children aged 5-11 years and their families
Central to our approach is the Model for Improvement. To gather and use effectively local insight and intelligence. An improvement team must ask three questions:
- What are we trying to accomplish? Aim - determine which specific outcomes we are trying to change.
- How will we know that a change is an improvement? Measures - identify appropriate measures to track success.
- What changes can we make that will result in improvement? Changes - identify key changes that we will test.
Each improvement team is implementing key changes through “Plan-Do-Study-Act” (PDSA) learning cycles. They will:
- Plan thoroughly to test the change, taking into account cultural and community characteristics
- Do – make the change in procedures, tracking progress using quantitative measures
- Study closely the results of the work for insight on how to do better
- Act to make the successful changes permanent or adjust the changes that need more work
Where we operate
Eccles
Who is eligible
After small-scale testing, learning and refinement through several PDSA cycles, an improvement team will implement the change more broadly – for example, across a neighbourhood or target group.
Who to Contact
Chris Dabbs (Chief Executive)
Contact details below
Who invests in us
Eccles Together in Health is funded by the Innovation Fund of Salford Clinical Commissioning Group.