PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lynsey Warwick-Giles
AU  - Jonathan Hammond
AU  - Simon Bailey
AU  - Kath Checkland
TI  - Exploring commissioners’ understandings of early primary care network development: qualitative interview study
AID  - 10.3399/BJGP.2020.0917
DP  - 2021 Mar 09
TA  - British Journal of General Practice
PG  - BJGP.2020.0917
4099  - http://bjgp.org/content/early/2021/06/28/BJGP.2020.0917.short
4100  - http://bjgp.org/content/early/2021/06/28/BJGP.2020.0917.full
AB  - Background Primary care networks (PCNs) are financially incentivised groupings of general practices in the English NHS. Their purpose is to deliver a number of policy goals set out in The NHS Long Term Plan. Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have a role in their establishment, support, and oversight.Aim To explore commissioners’ perspectives on the early development of PCNs.Design and setting Qualitative study of CCG staff using telephone interviews.Method Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 37 CCG employees involved in PCN establishment. Interviewees were asked about local PCNs’ characteristics, factors shaping development and form, activities to date, challenges and benefits, and their CCGs’ relationship with PCNs. Interviewee responses were summarised within a matrix and analysed thematically.Results Three meta-themes were identified: the multifaceted role of the commissioner, tensions between PCN policy and locally commissioned services, and engaging the broader system. Interviewees reported that the policy potentially favours those PCNs working from a ‘blank slate’ and does not sufficiently account for the fact some GP practices and wider system organisations have been doing similar work already. The prescriptive, contractual nature of the policy has led to local challenges, trying to ensure that local good practices are not lost during implementation. Interviewees also considered an important part of their work to be protecting PCNs from the weight of expectations placed on them.Conclusion CCGs are well placed to understand the complexities of local systems and to facilitate PCNs and working practices between wider system partners. It is important that this local role is not lost as CCGs continue to merge and cover larger geographical populations.