Future of Primary Care in the Black Country

The NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB) is working with system partners on a programme of work to transform and improve primary care over the next five years.

Primary care includes general practice, community pharmacy, dental and optometry services. These services are often the first places people go to for help with their health.

Right now, we are focusing on improving general practice and community pharmacy, while we also start to understand the issues facing dental and optometry services.

Looking to the future, we know that primary care needs to improve to make it work better for us all. The traditional way of providing and accessing primary care is not able to manage the increasing number of requests for care. Only by listening to, and working with people who provide and receive services will we create a fairer and more effective primary care system that meets the needs of our people and communities.

We have set out our ambition to improve primary care in a five-year strategy which is available to read here.

This is also summarised in our ‘Future Primary Care Conversation’ document.

Our strategy focuses on the following key priorities:

Improve access to unplanned care in general practice, which is joined up better with community pharmacy, making it easier for people to access the right support first time.

Address the care needs of people in the Black Country living with one or more long-term health conditions or disabilities by enhancing personalised care, ensuring continuity and improving integration and collaboration among care partners.

Equip patients with the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their own health and care. Prevent local people from becoming unwell and those with diagnosed conditions getting worse, by working with health and care partners using shared data to provide the right services and resources for better health education and support.

Enable primary care colleagues to perform at their best, with dedicated time to learn and innovate, as well as access to consistent education, training and development opportunities.

The strategy has been created based on the ICB’s Five-Year Joint Forward Plan published earlier this year, the national direction of travel set out in the Fuller Stocktake report, and ongoing insights and analysis through engagement with the local population, NHS and Local Authority partners and wider stakeholders.

A summary of the patient and public feedback used to inform the five-year strategy is available to read.

Join the Future Primary Care Conversation to help transform services across the Black Country

We now want to understand local people’s views on areas in this strategy so that together with GPs and health leaders, we can start to improve things further to shape the future of primary care in response to local needs.

From 12 August 2024 to 20 September 2024, we're inviting you to participate in the 'Future Primary Care Conversation.' This is your chance to share your experiences and ideas to help us transform primary care in the Black Country.

For more information, please read our Future Primary Care in the Black Country public conversation document

This is also available in the following formats:

How you can have your say

You can share your views and experience by taking part in a survey if you live in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall or Wolverhampton.

You can complete the survey online here which should take 15 to 20 minutes.

If you need help to complete the survey, call us on 0121 612 1447 to speak to a member of the team who will be happy to help.

If English isn’t your first language and you’d like help completing the survey over the telephone with the assistance of an interpreter, call us on 0121 661 7501.

If you would like a printed copy of the survey or require it in an alternative format, please call: 0121 612 1447 or email Involve.blackcountry@nhs.net.

The survey is open until 20 September 2024.

If you are a member of or lead a community group or Patient Participation Group in the Black Country and would like to share the invitation to have your say with your network or members, please email Involve.blackcountry@nhs.net to find out what support and resources we can help you with.