Primary care (general practice) is central to our health and care system. It exists to contribute to preventing ill health, providing early diagnosis and treatment, managing on-going mental and physical health conditions and helping people recover from episodes of ill health and injury. 

Our ambitions for primary care in the Black Country and West Birmingham are for high quality healthcare for the 1,450,000 people who live here. Our vision is for both healthier lives and better healthcare for our patients by working with our population to sustain and improve primary care services while reducing health inequalities. 

The challenges:

In the Black Country and West Birmingham there are high levels of deprivation, some of the highest levels of infant mortality rates in the country and the prevalence of obesity is increasing. These challenges place increasing pressure on the health and care system.

What will we do?

In order to meet the growing demands, change is needed within primary care to support the wider health and care system. We will support primary care to respond to the demands by: 

• Growing the workforce through the introduction of new roles 
• Developing Primary Care Networks (PCNs) - groups of practices working together to share resources and offer more services to patients 
• Utilising digital and estate solutions to improve access to primary care 

Our long-term vision:

The long-term vision for primary care in the Black Country and West Birmingham is to develop a resilient and sustainable model of primary care based on the following principles:

• A primary care system that will be general practice led, rather than general practice delivered
• Be focussed on prevention and commissioned for outcomes based on the population need within each PCN
• Be multidisciplinary, organised and delivering services at scale within each PCN and place
• Make the best use of technology to improve experience and outcomes for people
• Will deliver improved experience and better outcomes – determined and measured by those accessing our services
• Support and enable people to stay well and manage their own health through better use of technology and community assets
• Enable the primary care workforce to increase their skills, knowledge and competences
• Develop and enable community-based academic activity to improve effectiveness, research and quality

You can find out more about our plans and priorities for primary care in the Black Country and West Birmingham by reading our strategy.