February 2019

There is evidence that the demand for GP appointments is increasing and that working in new ways will be necessary to address this. We are working with GPs to identify key priorities to help balance the pressures they are faced with to maximise time for patient care.

As part of this work and following a review of how GP practices across Barnsley carry out home visiting to housebound patients, the CCG is procuring a provider of additional primary care home visiting service in Barnsley.

What people said about home visits

Click here to read the feedback from a range of GP practice patient reference groups, which helped inform the development of what additional home visiting services needed to provide for Barnsley people.

Taking part in the procurement

We recognise that the valuable knowledge and experiences of the people who use these services and their carers is second to none. Therefore, it is important that patients/service users and carers are given the opportunity to be part of the decision making processes of finding new providers for their service.

During November and December 2018, we invited applications from local patients/service and carers to be part of the panel team that oversees the process to evaluate the potential providers of the additional primary care home visiting service.  The successful patient representatives who we recruited took an active part in the procurement process as members of the procurement panel.   

We are currently evaluating the process undertaken and further details and feedback relating to this will be publicised here on our website soon.