Health and wellbeing in your neighbourhood

As part of our work, local GP practices across Preston, Chorley and South Ribble have come together within their geographical areas to form ‘networks’ in which they will work alongside other community based services to serve the local population.

This is the biggest transformation to the way local GPs work in more than a generation and was outlined as a key national priority within the recently published NHS Long Term Plan. These networks will become the foundation for the local health and care system of the future, and will be empowered to manage the health of their local populations. 

The development of these networks will involve GP practices across Preston, Chorley and South Ribble recruiting additional staff to form multi-skilled teams of professionals able to support their patients. These teams, which are likely to include clinical pharmacists, paramedics, social prescribing link workers, physiotherapists and others will help to free up GPs to focus on the sickest patients and prevent unnecessary visits or stays in hospital.

The networks will also help to join-up health and social care, increase the ability for services to proactively support local peoples’ health and wellbeing; as well as improve the coordination of care too. 

Across the central Lancashire area, there will be a total of nine networks covering the approximate 400,000 population of central Lancashire. You can see how these networks will be set up below: