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Welcome to Gateshead Inner West Primary Care Network

What is a Primary Care Network?

GP practices are working together with community, mental health, social care, pharmacy, hospital and voluntary services in their local areas in groups of practices known as primary care networks (PCNs).

 

PCNs build on existing primary care services and enable greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated health and social care for people close to home. Clinicians describe this as a change from reactively providing appointments to proactively caring for the people and communities they serve.

 

Watch the short animation, explaining the concept of PCNs and how this new way of working enables health and other services to work together to provide better access for patients.

How Do PCN's Benefit Patients?

Many who live with long term conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, or who have mental health issues, need to access local health and care services more often.

Networks have been given new money to invest and increase both the number and type of workers that can be employed in General Practice.

This means that patients can now have the option of seeing a health care professional who will meet their needs in the best way.

For example, if a patient is suffering from an injury, they can choose to see a Physiotherapist who will be able to relieve pain and stiffness. Or if a patient would like to speak to someone about their medications, they can arrange to speak to a Pharmacist who will review their medications and make sure they are right for their specific condition. 

Click here to read more about our extended healthcare team.