Primary and Secondary Care Interface

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside is working hard to streamline pathways for patients at the interface between Primary and Secondary Care. We published our Consensus on the Primary and Secondary Care Interface in 2022 and have since developed further resources for local organisations to help embed these principles of effective working.

This is important work and will lead to a reduction in bureaucracy and avoid patients finding themselves slipping into the gaps between services. There are many patient contacts taking place every day that could be avoided by better communication between professionals and by ensuring that actions are completed by the most appropriate clinician or team at the most appropriate time.

Consensus on the Primary and Secondary Care Interface

This document outlines key principles that we would expect clinicians working in both primary and secondary care to abide by. These principles emphasise the need to keep the patient at the centre of all that we do, and to treat all colleagues with respect. They cover areas such as prescribing, the issuing of fit notes, managing investigations, communication and more.

The consensus was developed with input from both primary and secondary care and was approved by all local hospital trust medical directors as well as primary care clinical leaders and local representative committees (LMCs).

Communications toolkit

This communications toolkit builds on the consensus and provides slightly more detail. It is presented in a way that allows organisations to consider promoting one topic at a time to clinicians and managers. The document begins by detailing why we need a consensus and goes on to cover areas by topic.

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside continues to work on this area and we are happy to talk to other systems about these resources. We are also open to learning from the good work done in other areas. For more information or to arrange to talk to us about this, please get in touch.

Blog posts

Below you will find the latest blogs from NHS Cheshire and Merseyside's Associate Medical Director for Primary Care, Dr Jonathan Griffiths, about the progress of the Primary and Secondary Care Interface.