Primary Care and Public Health SIG

Activity: Increase membership and communications between group members

Outcome: Increase membership to over 100; Increase traffic and sharing

Target date: Ongoing

Name lead: Kathrin Thomas

Outputs: Reduced membership in move form JISCMail to FPH early 2024

Activity: Webinar series

Outcome: Webinars delivered and well received

Target date: Ongoing

Name lead: Elizabeth Elmsley

Outputs: 6 webinars per year

Activity: Support members

Outcome: Members have good quality mentoring; guidance and advice from peers and more experienced members

Target date: Ongoing

Name lead: Kathrin Thomas and Eleanor Turner-Moss

Outputs: Number of one to one and group sessions

Activity: Engage with key stakeholders and other SIGs

Outcome: Engage with key stakeholders and other SIGs

Target date: Ongoing

Name lead: Kathrin Thomas

Outputs: RCGP engaged via Health Inequalities Standing Group and policy advisor

Activity: Publications on Primary Care and Public Health

Outcome: Greater visibility for public health and primary care collaboration

Target date: Ongoing

Name lead: Eleanor Turner-Moss

Outputs: At least one publication in a peer-reviewed journal; At least one presentation at a relevant conference e.g. WONCA

Activity: Policy position paper on primary care and public health

Outcome: FPH has a policy position to refer to re primary care and public health

Target date: July 2023

Name lead: Kathrin Thomas

Outputs: Policy paper published; Briefing on FPH website; Joint paper with RCGP on health inequities

Activity: Respond to ad hoc requests 

Outcome: FPH is able to respond to relevant consultations or calls for evidence or topical issues

Target date: Ongoing

Name lead: Kathrin Thomas

Outputs: Press releases, statements and evidence papers

Activity: Dual accreditation: advocate for this as long-term goal

Outcome: Pilot scheme for dual CCT in place

Target date: May 2024

Name lead: Eleanor Turner-Moss

Progress to date: Participation in HEE working group

Outputs: Contribution to establishing HEE pilot scheme

Activity: Explore how Faculty could support competencies in the primary care workforce who are taking on strategic roles

Outcome: Resources and signposting aimed at primary care professionals

Target date: May 2024

Name lead: Kathrin Thomas

Progress to date: Co-Chair chairing the RCGP GPwER Task and Finish Group with support from several members of this SIG; Advocating for FPH seminar on primary care workforce roles

Outputs: Website resource; Online learning resources

Activity: Continue series of public health topics of relevance to PCNs for PULSE PCN 

Outcome: Published articles in PULSE PCN

Target date: Ongoing

Name lead: Kathrin Thomas

Progress to date:  Still to do:

• Inequalities in health: what can PCNs realistically do?
• How to effectively and realistically support inclusion health groups in primary care
• Community development
• Spatial planning and transport
• Work and health

Outputs: Articles produced by SIG members

Activity: International network

Outcome: leverage the skills, networks, and expertise of our members to support the development of equitable and effective health systems that are built on integrated primary care and population health services

Target date: Ongoing

Progress to date: No progress, lead stepped down during 2024

Outputs: Highlight global health issues for the wider SIG members; Short policy responses; Identify and share opportunities for our SIG members to contribute to international work; Identify overseas learning and opportunities that could influence our domestic practice

General Practice at its best has always had a strong tradition of public health action and advocacy for equity. GPs such as Julian Tudor Hart have been an inspiration for several generations of GPs who have looked at the bigger picture to try and tackle the causes of the physical, mental and social troubles of their patients.

In the last few years, a plethora of roles have sprung up with "population health" and/or "health inequalities" in their role descriptions, which GPs have taken up with enthusiasm. So, how do we enable GPs to work out the new competencies they may need, and how does the public health community include and maximise the potential of this capable workforce?

This Faculty of Public Health (FPH) and Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) joint webinar with Professor Margaret Ikpoh (Vice-Chair for Professional Development and Standards at the RCGP) and Dr Kathrin Thomas (Co-Chair of the FPH Primary Care and Public Health SIG and member of the RCGP Health Equity SIG) took place on 19 December 2024.

During this session, Dr Simon Lennane discussed how to create sustainable and healthy communities by bridging the gap between health services and the voluntary sector. These approaches embrace connectivity, challenge inequality ,and are a preventative means to improving health outcomes. This is important as communities face challenges such as climate change and pandemics.

Dr Simon Lennane has been a GP in Ross-on-Wye for 20 years. He has published “Creating Community Health: Interventions for Sustainable Healthcare”, which explores how upstream community-based interventions can offer sustainable and cost-effective community health benefits. Simon was clinical director of the local Primary Care Network during the pandemic, as well as clinical lead for mental health commissioning.

This webinar took place on 15/05/2024.

Dr Amy Russell is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds. She leads a portfolio of research addressing health inequalities in research design, research governance, and clinical practice for “under-served” populations. She has significant experience working with historically excluded populations including women who have experienced human trafficking, people with learning disabilities and women with disabilities in global development settings.

This webinar took place on 10 April 2024.

Dr Laura Neilson is the founder and CEO of Hope Citadel Healthcare CIC, a growing group of GP practices across Greater Manchester, a director at Focused Care, and CEO of the Shared Health Foundation.

During this webinar, hosted by the FPH Primary Care and Public Health SIG on 7 February 2024, Dr Neilson reflected on the importance of tackling health inequalities in practice and recognising the underlying issues that affect a person's health, and shared learning from her experience of establishing Hope Citadel and working in areas of deprivation. 

Dr John Ford, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Health Equity in the Wolfson Institute, Queen Mary University London and Dr Anna Gkiouleka, Research Associate in the Department of Public Health & Primary Care, University of Cambridge discuss the key principles involved in how general practice can tackle health inequalities.

This webinar took place on 11 October 2023 and may be of interest to those from primary care and public health backgrounds.  

Dr Austin O'Carroll, GP in inner city Dublin and founder of the North Dublin City GP Training Programme, shares his experiences of training GPs with a focus on health equality, deprivation, and marginalised groups.

GP and educator Dr Jonathon Tomlinson reflects on the model of "trauma-informed care" in primary care and how adverse childhood experiences and other types of trauma are often in the background of medical conditions. 

During this one hour meeting organised by FPH's Primary Care and Public Health SIG, hear from Dr Becks Fisher on the Inverse Care Law in General Practice and why tackling this is as important now as it was when it was first defined by GP Julian Hart over 50 years ago.

When the UK government declared a national lockdown on 23 March 2020, staff at Elliott Hall Medical Centre, a primary care centre in Harrow recognised that many of their vulnerable patients would find it difficult to cope.

This webinar, brought to you by the FPH Primary Care and Public Health SIG (PHPC SIG), features Dr Chris Jenner, partner at Elliott Hall Medical Centre/long-term GP trainer and chair of a local virtual ward.

He describes a transformative approach to recruiting primary care volunteers and students to mobilise and support patients during the isolating and challenging time that was the first UK government COVID-19 lockdown. A BMJ article summarising this further is available here.

This webinar, part of the Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health series was hosted by the FPH Primary Care/Public Health SIG and featured two leading members from the inspiring and progressive Deep End GP network in Scotland.

The Deep End GP project started in 2009 and is a network of the 100 most disadvantaged GP practices in Scotland - who have worked on innovative projects to address inequalities in practice to research and advocacy that has changed policy across Scotland. Dr Carey Lunan MBE is the former chair of the RCGP in Scotland, a GP in Craigmillar in Edinburgh and currently chairs the Deep End GP project.

Dr David Blane, a GP in south Glasgow and academic at the University of Glasgow, is the academic lead for Deep End GPs. Throughout the webinar they discuss how their work has been affected by COVID, what approaches the group have taken over the last 12 months to tackle inequalities and the social determinants of health, and how public health can work better with primary care to improve health equity.

As part of the third webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

• Dr Luisa Pettigrew, visiting clinical Fellow at the Nuffield Trust and academic GP in London/LSHTM
• Dr Bernd Rechel, honorary Associate Professor at LSHTM working on health systems and health policy across Europe
• Dr Richard Garlick, retired GP and Consultant in Public Health
• Dr May van Schalkwyk, specialist registrar in public health and Academic Clinical Fellow, Imperial College London

The group wrote a polemic published in the BMJ in February 2021 calling out the lack of integration between public health and primary care in COVID responses across the UK and in England particularly, despite clear opportunities with emerging Primary Care Networks.

Why did it take until the vaccine roll-out for GPs and primary care to be included in the national response? Why were test and trace systems so separate from primary care (and even, in England to an extent, the NHS)? How can we learn from the pandemic and from overseas to strengthen future emergency responses, and improve community health through better joined-up working?

Discover thought-provoking and insightful talks from our panel of speakers ranging from evidence of best practice internationally on primary care/public health integration, personal experiences of dual training and potential next steps for networked working and public health in primary care.

As part of the fourth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

• Dr Sarah Temple, GP with a special interest in neurodevelopment, founder of EHCAP, a consultancy working to improve outcomes into adulthood for children and young people
• Dr Jonathon Tomlinson, Hackney-based GP in east London, trustee at the Centre for Health and the Public Interest and advocate for social justice through a radical approach to primary care

Hear more about the philosophy of 'Trauma-Informed Care' - a model of care increasingly spoken about that aims to increase people's sense of safety, trust, support and choice when it comes to accessing help. Greater recognition is now being given to the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences and trauma as a whole on presentations to healthcare services. Listen to what expert speakers suggest on how primary care practices and networks could learn from this emerging field to best support people in need.

As part of the fifth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

• Dr Matt Harris, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Public Health at Imperial College London and longstanding advocate for the Community Health Worker model in the UK
• Dr Connie Junghans, Academic Clinical Fellow in Primary Care, Imperial College London and Public Health Specialist, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea/Westminster City Council

Hear more about the development and implementation of the community health worker model and lessons learned for other areas around the UK interested to develop similar services. The model has been used all across the world from low and middle-income country settings through to the USA who applied it in several regions particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic to reach communities not typically so well engaged with routine health services.

As part of the sixth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

• Dan Hopewell, Director of Knowledge and Innovation at the Bromley by Bow Centre
• Berenice Lamblin, Knowledge Share and Exchange Programme Manager

Hear more about how to use NHS facilities for community health and resilience, guidance on creating welfare advice and social prescribing services in primary care, and methods of engaging community members in the running of primary care.

Access the PowerPoint presentation here.

As part of the seventh webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

• Solomon Lebese, HEE Population Health Fellow 2021-22 and GP Registrar
• Sara Harford, HEE Population Health Fellow 2021-22 and Special Care Dentistry Registrar
• Erika Andrews, HEE Population Health Fellow 2021-22 and GP
• Orla Dunn, HEE Population Health Fellow Supervisor and Consultant in Public Health, Somerset County Council

Hear more about examples of Population Health Fellowship projects the impacts of these projects on population health outcomes, reflections on professional development opportunities the programmes have created, and what lessons we can learn from the programme to apply to how we build the capability of the broader health and care workforce to promote population health.

Access the 'Population Health Fellowship: Improving Young People’s Wellbeing in Somerset' presentation here.

Access the 'HEE Population Health Fellowship: A Fellow’s Perspective' presentation here.

Access the 'My Population Health Fellowship Experience' presentation here.

As part of the eighth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from Professor Dame Hazel Genn as she discusses how Health Justice Partnerships between primary care and lawyers could address a key determinant of health inequalities.

Access to legal advice around social welfare is key to mental and physical health, covering matters ranging from entitlements to benefits, housing, debt management, fair treatment in work and many other factors. Health Justice Partnerships aim to reach people in need of legal advice and improve health through collaborative working between healthcare services and legal teams.

Listen to Professor Genn summarise examples of such partnerships, including a successful service in Stratford, London between 2016, as well as evidence for what benefits such partnerships can bring to patients, services and communities.

Access a PDF version of the resource slides here.

Access the 'International Evidence on the Impact of Health-Justice Partnerships: A Systematic Scoping Review' document here.

Access the 'Law for Health' document here.

Access the 'Health-Justice Partnerships in England: An implementation study' here.

Discover more resources on the UCL Health Justice website.

As part of the ninth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from Dr Cheryl Lowes, GP and Community Development Lead for primary care in Liverpool, Debbie Nolan, Health Lead for Citizens Advice Liverpool and Clare Mahoney, Senior Programme Manager at Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group.

Since 2014 Liverpool CCG has funded an Advice on Prescription Service in collaboration with Liverpool Citizens Advice. The programme allows all Liverpool GPs to refer patients for social welfare advice including housing, employment support, debt issues and benefits advice.

An evaluation of referrals between 2016-18 found the service led to income maximisation of £6.7 million with an average increase in household income for each patient referred of £762. 77% of patients referred reported an increase in capacity to manage their own physical and/or mental health and 23% reported an improvement to their housing security including avoiding eviction.

With rising costs of living likely to push more people into poverty and debt we will hear how programmes such as this can mitigate such harms and ensure primary care provides holistic care while tackling inequalities.

Access the slide deck here.

Access the 'How Social Welfare Legal Advice and Social Prescribing can work collaboratively in healthcare settings' report here.

As part of the tenth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from Dr Rachel Steen and Dr Suesanne Samara from Fairhealth, a registered charity in Yorkshire and the Humber supporting health equity action and learning for health professionals.

Fairhealth officially registered as a charity in December 2020 and has grown to hosting e-learning modules, patient narratives and blogs and podcasts as well as a platform to engage students in discussions around health inequalities.

Their Trailblazer scheme supports motivated and recently qualified GPs to work in practices of greater socio-economic deprivation, supported by a monthly teaching programme.

Alongside this the charity runs a national monthly programme bringing together GPs on Trailblazer and health equity fellowships with topics ranging from trauma-informed care to rural deprivation and modern slavery. To date the charity website has logged over 1000 active learners, hosts 11 free courses and has achieved over 1000 hours of learning completed.

The 11th webinar of the Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health series invited members of the SIG to join an informal catch-up to explore the new roles that many SIG members are taking up across the UK, in the territory between Primary Care clinical work and strategic population health work.

Hear from three people: A young GP, a GP Registrar and a newly appointed Consultant in Public Health.

All are pioneers in their new roles. This discussion offers numerous ideas and advice, and is useful if you are looking at a portfolio career.​