Dear Patients of Blackthorn Health Centre & Hedge End Medical Centre,
Over the past five years, our two practices have worked closer together by way of the Primary Care Network (PCN). Together, we have enjoyed developing and offering new services and collaborating on successful projects to provide better care for our patients.
After extensive discussions between the partners, we feel the natural progression is to formalise this arrangement. We propose to merge the two practices to form a new organisation.
This partnership would be a significant step forward for both practices and our patient community. It represents, not just a merging of resources, but a fusion of our vision – to provide a responsive, innovative and flexible service for our patients. It will also help safeguard GP services for many years to come.
We want to assure you that this proposed merger would not result in the closure of any of our three sites, and instead seeks to strengthen the great work we have done together so far.
We have collaborated previously on these successful projects:
- Eastleigh Southern Parishes Primary Care Hub (now located at the former Bursledon Surgery site in Lowford), offering additional GP and advanced nurse practitioner appointments as part of the Daytime Service and the Enhanced Access Service.
- Out of Hours Service, offering additional capacity to support NHS services when GP practices are closed.
- Delivering COVID-19 vaccinations (also at Lowford).
- Additional roles including pharmacists, home visiting paramedics, mental health practitioners, musculoskeletal practitioners, physician associates, pro-active care nurses, social prescribers, health & wellbeing coaches and our award-winning Care Navigation Service.
- Additional Phlebotomy (blood testing) Service.
- Coil and implant clinics outside of normal GP opening hours.
- Family therapy services.
- Counselling for young people.
- Proactive Discharge Service supporting patients over the age of 80 who have been discharged from hospital.
- The Life Changes Counselling Service.
Urgent Care Centre
We intend to further build on the success of the PCN with our next joint project, the Urgent Care Centre (UCC). The UCC will be based at the Lowford site and will host the majority of urgent care needs of our patients who are currently seen at the Blackthorn and Hedge End sites.
The service will be managed by our own GPs and supported by an array of clinical staff, including our advanced nurse practitioners, paramedics, health care assistants, pharmacists, musculoskeletal practitioners and mental health practitioners.
The success of this project will increase the routine GP appointment capacity at both practices. The non-urgent service will be managed by the remainder of the GPs, and other primary care team members, at the Blackthorn and Hedge End sites. They will be seeing the more complex patients, including those who would benefit from seeing the same GP or requiring more routine care. As a result, you will be able to see your local GP more quickly.
The UCC is planned to launch in the spring / summer and more information will follow nearer the time.
The decision to unite the practices and the PCN is driven by our commitment to future sustainability and our belief in the power of collaboration to address the complex challenges of modern healthcare.
What does this mean for our patients?
We think this is an exciting time for the patients of both practices, but we appreciate you will have lots of questions.
We have compiled a Q&A document which we hope will answer many of these questions, and we encourage your feedback on these proposals.
You can share your feedback and ask questions in the following ways:
- Email us on [email protected].
- Complete a feedback slip available from each of the three sites.
- Attend a stakeholder meeting (dates to be announced).
On behalf of both practices, we wish to thank you for your continued support. We look forward to embarking on this journey together, towards a more accessible and more sustainable healthcare future within the Eastleigh Southern Parishes PCN.
Warmest regards,
The Partners of Blackthorn Health Centre and Hedge End Medical Centre
Page last reviewed: 18 March 2024