Primary Enhanced Services (PES)
Primary Enhanced Services (PES) are additional services provided by GP practices in the UK beyond the essential medical services they offer. These services are designed to meet the specific needs of local communities and can include services such as minor surgery, contraceptive services, and childhood vaccinations. PES aim to improve patient care by offering a wider range of healthcare services directly from GP practices.
Contract Award and Primary Enhanced Services Overview
In 2019, North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (now known as Integrated Care Board (ICB) awarded GP Primary Choice Ltd a contract for Primary Enhanced Services, for a term of four years, with the option to extend for a further three years. The three-year extension was awarded and commenced in October 2023.
The services within this contract are predominantly delivered in primary care by GPs and other practice staff. These include:
- Phlebotomy (blood tests)
- Long-acting injections
- Depot injections (e.g. for some antipsychotic drugs)
- Minor injury treatment
- Wound care after an operation or following a visit to the hospital
- Drug monitoring
- Treatment for deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
- Pulmonary embolisms (PE)
- Anticoagulation monitoring
End of Life Data Monitoring in Collaboration with St Helena Hospice
In accordance with the North East Essex Alliance’s ‘Die Well’ outcomes, alliance partner St Helena Hospice was involved in the development of one particular service element of PES, whereby GPPC collate End of Life data and the prevalence of My Care Choices Register amongst patients who are deemed to be End of Life. This involves liaising and monitoring surgery performance in abidance with people’s choices for their care, particularly end-of-life.
My Care Choices record, is an electronic record of a persons decisions about the kind of care they wish to receive in the future if they were more unwell and their preference for the place of care at the end of life. For more information please visit St Helena Hospice website.
Health Checks for Severe Mental Illness in Primary Care
As referenced in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, nationally, those with severe mental illness had almost seven times more emergency inpatient admissions, and three times the rate of A&E attendances. Half of this activity was unrelated to mental health need and instead driven by urgent physical healthcare needs.
GP Primary Choice as well as contracting this service to be delivered in Primary Care, also have a team of specialist nurses who directly deliver the SMI physical health checks due to capacity and demand within Primary Care.
