About Gosforth and Jesmond Health
Gosforth and Jesmond Health (GJH) is a Limited Company that operates both North Gosforth and Jesmond Lower Gosforth Primary Care Networks in Newcastle.
We incorporated in May 2022, working as a not-for-profit organisation, reinvesting in patient care and supporting our workforce.
Our aim is to deliver high-quality, localised primary care services that are agile to the present and future needs of patients at the eight GP practices in our two networks.
We are centred solidly in the NHS. Our team have a wealth of clinical and operational experience in the health service.
History
Our story begins back in 2019, when Primary Care Networks or PCNs, were first introduced into the NHS.
Each network would be made up of neighbouring GP practices, who could now formally work together to provide increasingly personalised, integrated services that would meet the changing needs of their patient population.
But there was no blueprint or established model to follow – it was up to each group of practices to decide how to use this opportunity.
Our approach was collaboration. Rather than each practice getting a slice of funding to recruit one or two specialists to work with their patients, a collective approach meant a team of specialists could work across all practices, offering more services to patients.
Networks are formed on the number of patients – typically 30,000 to 50,000 – so they are big enough to make share resources and benefit from economies of scale but still small enough to deliver a personal, local service.
As the names suggest, our networks neighbour each other and share similar demographics. Broadly speaking, the needs of patients in North Gosforth were not radically different to those in Jesmond Lower Gosforth.
Many of the community links and other services we wanted to build relationships with were the same.
So it made sense for the two networks to work together, informally at first, to share ideas, and best practice and develop a common approach.
Formation
In 2022 we formally incorporated the two networks into Gosforth and Jesmond Health.
Doing so was the next logical step in growing and developing innovative, proactive, personalised healthcare.
PCNs had only ever existed as an arrangement between practices, not as their own entities. This meant relying on other NHS organisations to support key functions.
Becoming a company meant we could manage our own budgets and be in charge of our own procurement, staff recruitment and development.
This also gave us the independence and flexibility to grow and provide consistent, structured development for our staff teams.
Board and Teams
Gosforth and Jesmond Health has an experienced board to provide clinical and operational leadership.
The Board and our management and support team support our distinct specialist teams commissioned to each of our Primary Care Networks.
Internally, our teams are aligned by purpose rather than by network. The four teams are:
- Pharmacy
- Home Visits and Same Day Access
- Under 65
- Over 65
This allows for effective and important cross-working, central to innovating, developing and delivering consistent approaches that benefit practices and patients.
Delivering for Patients and Practices
We see our role as delivering an additional tier of expert services to patients and practices across Gosforth and Jesmond.
Our latest performance statistics show how we are doing.