London Central and West Unscheduled Care Collaborative

The history
In 1994 a group of enthusiastic GPs set up the first GP out of hours co-operative in London and this developed through several different incarnations into the current organisation - a social enterprise/Community Benefit Society.

The ethos
The same qualities have underpinned the service from the beginning namely a highly professional, ‘not for profit’ service delivered by experienced staff familiar with the local environment from an organisation that prides itself on its family-friendly work environment. These qualities combined with a ‘can do’ mentality have meant that LCW and all of its precursors have proved to be innovative, reliable, and cost effective. Above all it has been and continues to be a real benefit to the local community.

The team
Chief Executive, Tonia Culpin and Medical Director, Dr Tim Ladbrooke supported by Council members, Company Secretary, Education Lead, Operational Team and front line staff have built up LCW into an organisation of over 430 GP members drawn from General Practice. The service is delivered on a day to day basis by our team of managers, frontline operational, support and clinical teams that all play a huge role in our success.

The service
As a provider of unscheduled care LCW provides primary care services to 650,000 patients across four PCTs (Brent, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea, and Westminster) using its extensive experience and expertise to deliver 24/7 clinical support, infrastructure and organisational support to provide:

• GP out of hours services within the Inner North West London Sector
• Four UCCs co-located with Emergency Departments
• Two co-located GP practices
• A community hospital GP-led Urgent Care Centre
• 24/7 Single point of access

The collaborations
Over the years LCW has worked collaboratively with local commissioners and providers to contribute to a number of local health initiatives and developments. It has successfully developed key strategic networks across a variety of local organisations including:  PCT Commissioners, Practice Commissioning Consortia, Community Providers, Acute Trusts, Community Pharmacists, London Ambulance Service, Mental Health Trusts and Borough Councils.

LCW has more recently developed various key strategic partnerships including local GP Providers, Community Providers and Acute Trusts which has enabled as successful partnership approach to unscheduled care tender opportunities within Inner NW London sector.

The performance
LCW is pleased to report continued high performance across the out of hours quality standards. Any exceptions are fully investigated by our medical director and clinical governance committee and undergo joint review with commissioners.
LCW continues to self monitor against Standards for Better Health and is working towards transition to the new criteria required by the Care Quality Commission and registration in 2012.

The future
A recent extension to the Single Point of Access (SPA) service provides a 24/7 communications hub for both existing services and the development of new services that will benefit not just the wider community but provide vital links that will enable streamlined communication between Patients, Carers and Healthcare Professionals. These pathways have include: registered GP, hospital at home, community nursing, mental health, EOL/palliative care.

To remain ‘fit for purpose’ and ready to meet future challenges in the delivery of local unscheduled healthcare, one of LCW’s key investments has been in the development of our Information technology infrastructure. This has included deployment of a new VoIP telephony solution, implementation of a robust disaster recovery system and detailed business continuity plans.