Family care networks ‘can be a future solution for primary care’

Numerous benefits could arise from the NHS adopting a new family care network model in the planning of primary care in future, according to a leading thinktank.

A report from the King's Fund has proposed a new GP contract to sit alongside existing arrangements that would put GP surgeries at their heart of providing a wider range of services for patients outside hospitals.

The measures would see a defined population receive care funding determined by a combination of population need and the range of responsibilities included in it. This would require practices to link up with others, allowing them to benefit from pooled expertise and resources.

It would facilitate a shift to proactively managing the health of local populations and responding quickly to patients in crisis, while focusing on outcomes delivered under the contract, rather than how care is organised.

Chris Ham, chief executive at the King's Fund and one of the report's authors, said: "At a time when NHS budgets are increasingly under pressure and the proportion spent on general practice is in decline, these proposals could bring money into general practice."

This comes at a time when the government is seeking to give GPs a more central role in care provision, introducing several reforms to bring back the "family doctor" that existed in the past.