New models of care are destined to transform health and care for patients – but what does that mean for GPs in an area considering a new way of working and what impact does this have on patients and practice teams.

A series of short films have been produced to help GPs learn more about what it is like to be part of a developing multispecialty community provider (MCP) and what it might mean for them.

Developed with five GPs from across the country, the videos show them giving personal accounts of their experiences, including what led their practices to consider a new model of care and why they believe these changes will help sustain general practice for the future.

Each film is specific to the place where the participating GP is based and reflects the experience that area has had of considering becoming an MCP and how that GP feels about it.

Dr Neil Fraser, a GP from East Leake and Lead for Long Term Conditions with Principia Partners in Health multispecialty community provider (MCP) vanguard, said: “We were motivated to be a MCP and vanguard for a couple of reasons. It’s been part of our ethos for a long time to be pioneers and try to do things first and it’s been a real stimulus to work with our big hospital and help us to integrate better with them and move services into the community.

“We’ve found that often the NHS is quite fragmented, there’s lots of duplication and people have to tell their story a number of times when they go to different places.

“We are working more as teams now to provide that continuity of care rather than individuals, which is traditionally what’s happened, and it’s been very well received by both clinicians, and most importantly patients.

“Having a degree of control over your own destiny is really important and that’s really what this process has enabled.”

GPs from four vanguards have taken part in the films.

• Principia Partners in Health
• Better Local Care (Hampshire)
• Wellbeing Erewash
• Dudley MCP

The films highlight what considering becoming a MCP has meant for their patients, their teams, their careers and their contracts. In addition, Dr Tracey Vell, a GP from Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, talks about what moving to a new way of working means for practices.

Dr Donal Collins, a GP from Gosport and Clinical Lead for the Better Local Care (Hampshire) multispecialty community provider (MCP) vanguard, said: “The vision behind the multispecialty community provider (MCP) that really got me excited was about creating a truly integrated system, a system that acted as one for patients.

“The benefits of going down the multispecialty community provider route for the team are that it’s going to create an environment where we can improve outcomes for patients. We’re going to stop working as individual silos – the last 20 years have proved that hasn’t worked.  We’ve got a new way of working together for our common purpose and mission.”

The final film in the series is an ‘overview’ featuring Dr Arvind Madan, the NHS National Primary Care Director, talking about how working in new models of care benefits GPs and patients. He outlines the three contractual multispecialty community provider (MCP) models, with excerpts from the five themed videos.

Dr Arvind Madan, the NHS National Primary Care Director, said: “The three options include a virtual MCP, a partially integrated MCP and a fully integrated MCP contract which includes the scope for all of the services including general practice.

“GPs within a locality will all need to decide, what is the right decision for them, and not all practices will necessarily need to decide to be all in or all out.”

The films are designed to give a broad idea of what MCPs mean for GPs, rather than deliver detailed information and should be considered alongside the GP participation in a multispecialty community provider (MCP) document.