The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) has released a draft strategy to 'transform' primary care services in south-east England.
The Primary Care Strategy focuses on general practice, community pharmacy, optometry and dentistry services.
It is designed to address challenges such as high demand, an ageing population and workforce pressures among others.
The strategy is part of a broader initiative to integrate primary care with community services and develop innovative care delivery methods.
This initiative has been supported by the ICB's Integrated Care Strategy and Five-Year Joint Forward Plan, which was released last year.
The draft strategy's three main priorities are improving access to appropriate support for patients, developing personalised care for complex health needs, and preventing ill health through sharing data on communities' health needs with ICB partners.
To achieve these goals, the strategy proposes the development of non-complex same-day care and integrated neighbourhood teams, as well as prevention services that will initially target cardiovascular disease (CVD).
It also emphasises the importance of preventing CVD by addressing smoking, obesity and high blood pressure through collaboration with health and care partners.
In addition, the strategy includes plans to enhance other primary care areas such as promoting the NHS mobile app for patient self-management and supporting a national service for minor eye conditions.
BOB ICB has invited public input on the draft strategy through an online survey, which will be available until 29 February.
BOB ICB Primary Care director Dr Abid Irfan said: “Our draft strategy outlines solutions to tackle the challenges we face in primary care, including increased demand and need to improve access with limited resources to support us.
“Our vision is to transform primary care across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West by integrating these services and ensure they work more closely with our health and care partners across our communities to provide better patient care.”
