Our History
It is hard to believe that BGPA has been around since January 2015, rapidly growing from providing extra appointments for GP practices, to delivering a wide range of services to Bromley patients and in doing so supporting Bromley General Practice. These services include; Access Hubs, Phlebotomy, Dermatology, Headache, Vasectomy, OOH GPs, NHS health checks, Chairing ICN MDT meetings, Bromleag Care Practice, supporting Primary Care Networks (PCNs), supporting the health needs of homeless people in Bromley and running a Covid-19 vaccination programme. Through our Care Practice and other initiatives, we have been involved in the debate on how to manage frailty in Bromley.
We are now seen as a permanent Health Partner in Bromley and are established within the One Bromley framework, as well as being recognised by patients as a high-quality provider of Health Care.
BGPA is YOU, the 43 Practices who own it and through that, are part of, and share in, the success story of the BGPA. Together, we believe in every consultation mattering. Together we are passionate about health care for Bromley patients and because we want to support each other, we provide the high quality of service that BGPA delivers. Since the organisations implementation, all our services have developed the ethos of sharing our professional knowledge and skills with our patients. This is reflected in outstanding patient reviews for each of our services, as well as feedback from you at our practice visits. In 2019, we had a very successful CQC inspection which saw us receive a ‘good’ rating overall with areas of outstanding practice.
What has BGPA done for Practices?
In 2021 alone, we saw 87,135 patients in our phlebotomy service, which is the equivalent to 239 patients daily.
We also saw 34,000 patients in our Access Hubs for Bromley Practices, 4,681 dermatology patients in the community, 989 patients in our headache clinic, 274 NHS health check (Oct 21-June 22), and 285 in our vasectomy counselling service with 253 vasectomies being carried out.
BGPA responded to the needs of our member Practices when we took on our most challenging project to date, creating a brand new GP Practice, Bromleag Care Practice, offering registration to all patients in Bromley Care Homes. Bromleag Care Practice has taken the strain from our Practices, freeing up their time and increasing their capacity to deal with other equally important priorities. The Care Practice supports the concept of ‘releasing time to care’ and ‘improving access for patients’ as highlighted in the GP contract agreement 2020/2021. It will also reduce PCNs involvement in the ‘Enhanced Health in Care Homes’ element of the new GP contract. In providing care to all care homes, Bromleag has already reduced many health inequalities in this very vulnerable group of patients.
Bromleag has received commendation for its services from One Bromley
BGPA invested in TeamNet for all its member GP Practices, a fantastic tool which both functions like an intranet and also a repository for policies and handbooks, compliance data, monitoring, recording items such as complaints and fridge temperatures, setting reminders and alerts, staff calendar and rotas. Almost everything needed to prepare for a successful CQC visit, in one place.
We have negotiated discounts for our practices including a substantial discount for the very popular Blue stream Academy learning suites and good deals on printers.
At a time when Practices needed help with employing staff BGPA came forward and employed a Data Protection Officer, and in 2019, has supported several PCNs by employing Clinical Pharmacists and Social Prescribers on their behalf.
We have supported PCNs since their inception in 2019. We currently hold funds for 6 out of the 8 networks; employ social prescribers for 7, clinical pharmacists for 4, Pharmacy Technicians for 3, Physician Associates for 2, Paramedics, Podiatrist & Care Coordinators for 1, Network Managers for 3 and Administrator & Practice Nurse for 1. We also provide extended hours for 4 networks and have 5 hub sites.
During the winter of 2021/2022 BGPA supported The Bromley Homeless Shelter, organising care for the homeless who had medical needs by setting up weekly clinics at the night shelter in the United Reformed Church, Bromley which followed on the work from 2019/2020. The clinics have been well received.
BGPA has been involved with education and training since 2016 being one of the first organisations of its type to get agreement from Health Education England (HEE) to host the CEPN. It has grown and now supports education, training and professional development across Primary Care in Bromley. With its rapid growth BGPA set up Bromley Education and Training Hub (BETH) as an independent community interest company in 2019. BETH is well regarded by Bromley Practice Managers. BETH now leads on a workforce programme for Primary Care expanding both Nurse and GP training programmes in Bromley as well as creating opportunities for Care Navigators and Medical Assistants and trains HCA’s and new phlebotomists.
When we set out, we aimed to support Bromley General Practice at a time of increasing workload and a shrinking workforce, to develop an education and training hub for Bromley and to help reduce some of the health inequalities across the borough. We have delivered on those goals and along the journey set some new ones, such as working closely with our fellow health care providers and developing a programme to help struggling practices in nearby boroughs.
Our quest for 2021/2022 is to do more to support Bromley General Practice, to strengthen our position as a provider organisation and thus supporting the overall Bromley Health economy.
Our vision remains to deliver the highest quality care to our patients in the right place, at the right time, by the right people.
