Not a ‘polyclinic’: Johnson opens the first GP-led health centre
pharmafile | December 3, 2008 | News story | |Â Â NHS, reformÂ
The first of a new generation of primary care centres has been opened in Bradford, which the government hopes will improve frontline NHS services dramatically.
Hillside Bridge Health Care Centre is the first of what were once dubbed 'polyclinics' by the government, but opposition to the concept proved so great this year that the terminology was dropped in favour of 'GP-led health centre' or simply 'health care centre'.
Despite the name change, the concept remained largely the same – larger, more accessible primary centres which offer services previously unavailable or only available in hospitals.
The Bradford centre will offer a range of services, including diabetes and asthma clinics, sexual health services, minor surgery, vaccinations and immunisations, and health and well-being clinics.
The government is pressing ahead with its plans to create 150 such centres, one in each of England's PCTs. Significantly, each centre will be 'open-access' allowing patients registered with GPs elsewhere to use the services from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week.
In addition to the 150 new GP-led centres, the government is aiming for a further 100 new surgeries to open in 'under doctored' areas. Limiting the number of GP-led centres to one per PCT area was an attempt to reassure sceptics that the plans would not kill off the existing model of general practice, but criticism persists.
Earlier this year, the King's Fund published a report on polyclinics, saying that there was no evidence the policy would improve the health of the local population.
The Bradford centre is also notable for being run by Local Care Direct, a 'social enterprise' (ie not-for-profit company) which has built and will run the centre in partnership with Bradford Teaching PCT.
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