Award winning primary care network brand Pulse PCN, supported by leading GP brand Pulse, launches a new website today.

With more content for networks, Pulse PCN continues to serve its community of clinical directors – leading GPs working across local neighbourhoods to improve health and access to healthcare for their communities.

This exciting move makes all of Pulse PCN’s focused content more accessible – with fewer clicks to reach the news that impacts their network.  

The new Pulse PCN site is now accessible to wider network staff working under the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS), such as pharmacists, GPNs and social prescribing link workers.

It covers news, views, insight, ARRS, roundtables and reports including an analysis of the latest ARRS data.

Editor of Pulse PCN, Victoria Vaughan, says: ‘Pulse PCN having its own dedicated site means we are better able to cater to the network community – which continues to grow as more roles are added to the controversial additional roles scheme.  

‘While NHS England is set to be abolished the push for a neighbourhood health service continues.  PCNs are already established in neighbourhoods across England and more than 37,000 staff are now in primary care placing networks in pole position when it comes to leading this agenda.

‘We will continue to cater to the innovative tranche of network leaders kicking off with a feature on pay and a roundtable on the PCN role in neighbourhood health.’

News and analysis are provided by senior reporter, Beth Gault, covering all the developments of the Network DES and primary care as they unfold this spring.

The views section features interviews of key leaders in primary care and opinion pieces from leading clinical directors from across England as well as experts in health policy and primary care.

And insight gathers together all our case studies and ‘how to’ pieces from PCNs around the country, covering how innovative care is delivered to patients.

Our quarterly roundtables involve four to six clinical directors discussing core issues faced by PCNs from the structured medication reviews to GPs inclusion in ARRS.

Pulse PCN, which is also part of a series of events run across the country, is guided by a board of clinical directors drawn from London, Kent, and Yorkshire and our team of expert columnists including: PCN clinical director Dr Sian Stanley; consultant Ben Gowland and management expert Tara Humphrey.  

The new site will see them joined by leaders from the ARRS professions such as Charlotte Osborn-Forde, CEO of the National Academy for Social Prescribing who will provide opinion of the profession as a whole, as well as frontline ARRS staff who will write about their experiences in their job role.  

Launched in April 2021 Pulse PCN it is the only brand dedicated to the work of this tranche of primary care leaders.

For more information about Pulse PCN, including our events and digital advertising options, please contact us today.

Pulse PCN’s latest roundtable, Enhanced access: How it works for PCNs, practices and patients, brings clinical directors together to discuss how they have implemented this core PCN service.

Enhanced access was one of the major changes brought in with the PCN contract in 2022. It requires appointments to be offered between the hours of 6.30pm and 8pm Mondays to Fridays and between 9am and 5pm on Saturdays.

The measure was introduced to support patients who wanted appointments in general practice and to help ease the 8am rush at surgeries. This roundtable looks at what impact this measure has had on PCNs, practices and patients.

Four clinical directors and a PCN manager from areas across England including London, Shropshire and Cheshire, evaluate the service in their PCN and the challenges and benefits of offering extended appointment access to patients.

The delegates discuss the service set up, workload, staffing, supervision and patient views in this lively discussion covering the ever-present issue of patient access.

For Dr Shanika Sharma, clinical director of West One PCN in East London, the service was a progression from the extended access her area already offered, whereas for Dr Stefan Waldendorf, clinical director of Newport and Central PCN, Shropshire, it was new territory which saw his PCN setting up an entirely new

They raise initial issues around access to medical records and sharing information between practices and while they agree that patients like it, and it’s here to stay, it ultimately adds up to more work for GPs. As Dr Gayan Perera, enhanced access lead at Medics PCN, Luton, says, ‘Overall, it does provide better access for patients, which is a positive. But there’s no way around it – the more access you give, the more work is generated.’

Pulse PCN editor Victoria Vaughan says: ‘This roundtable shows the different approaches and challenges PCNs face when delivering enhanced access. This service is crucial when it comes to accessing primary care and will no doubt have a role in the new government’s push to neighbourhood health centres.’

Pulse PCN’s quarterly roundtables examine the core tasks PCNs must deliver as part of the PCN Network DES and the work of the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) staff they have hired into primary care.

Read 15 thought-provoking roundtables covering topics such as health inequalities, digital transformation, structured medication reviews and early cancer diagnosis led by clinical directors from across England.

Pulse PCN’s roundtable series is part of our comprehensive offering for our community of primary care network (PCN) clinical directors and their teams. And they are hosted on the dedicated Pulse PCN site making it easier to access these great clinician-led debates.

For the opportunity to reach our audience of decision-makers across PCNs through a variety of digital advertising options, please contact us today.