Welcome to Torridge Health

We are an NHS primary care network made up of six GP practices serving around 50,000 people based in the Torridge area of North Devon.

Our Member Practices:

Our Network Footprint

Our combined practices serve patients living in the following area:

Our Network Themes

We are focusing on four main themes for 2019/20.

Theme 1 – Establishing the structures and relationships to work at network and neighbourhood level

We want to be exemplars of collaborative working and will put in place the structures and relationships to do this well.

Our work under this theme will include:

  • Establishing the Torridge Primary Care Network by 01 July 2019 using the PCN DES as our contractual and financial framework.
  • Developing Torridge as a Primary Care Home type model.
  • Establish a Population Health management Approach in Torridge.

Theme 2 – Working together to improve services

We will work to develop services that we cannot provide as individual practices. This will include:

  • Extended and Improved Access Hours.
  • Clinical Pharmacy Support Services.
  • Social Prescribing Link Working integrated with Community Building and Mapping of services.
  • Integrated Diabetic Support Services.
  • An Integrated Anticipatory Care Service.
  • Pro-Active Care Home Visiting and Support Services

Theme 3 – Making Torridge Practices better places to work

We will work on projects that build resilience across the practices within our Network by better sharing resources and expertise – and that promote wellbeing in our teams. For example:

  • Agile spreading of workload (e.g. another practice taking on a clinic due to short notice illness of a staff member)
  • Sharing of back office functions
  • Joint approaches to procurement, recruitment and other common services.
  • Better skills development ‘people-based not just place-based working’

Overall we will move toward integrating our teams – making the most of our shared workforce and getting rid of duplication. We will also aim to link new workforce development with our work on Population Health Management.

Theme 4 – Making Torridge a better place to live

With others, we will develop projects that address a wider societal challenge with a clear health component but involve a wide range of others across Torridge. These are not projects we can deliver on our own, but we are open to working with others who want to improve the health and wellbeing of people in Torridge.

For example:

  • Developing a robust relationship with One Northern Devon, One Bideford, Torridge 100 and Hartland Volunteers.
  • A wide ranging diabetes and obesity programme (collaboration with Park Run etc)
  • Better provision for people who present with a non-medical need (eg. advice on benefits or poor housing)
  • Self-Care and Social Prescribing – including a local Directory and additional signposting/coordination.
  • Better mobilisation of the local voluntary sector

Initially, we will focus on:

  • Work with local Public health colleagues to better understand the health needs of people in Torridge and develop a population Health Management approach.
  • Establishing better relationships with Local Authority and Third Sector partners in Torridge.