Section 3: Support Delivery of the PCN Specification through a Community of Practice
The 20/21 DES Specification states that PCNs should:
Establish a Community of Practice between practice level clinical staff and system partners to support the delivery of requirements for 1 & 2 above, encouraging:
- Peer to peer learning events: looking at data, trends in diagnosis across a PCN, including cases where patients presented repeatedly before referral and late diagnosis
- Engagement with local system partners: Patient Participation Groups, Secondary Care, Cancer Alliance, Public Health, Commissioning Teams
Note: This section does not overlap with QOF QI
Suggestions for establishing communities of practice
• Hold PCN peer to peer meetings
• Link in with your CCG GP cancer lead (details in resources section below)
• Look for opportunities to collaborate on work across PCNs/CCGs/the Cancer Alliance footprint (C&M)
• Look for education opportunities; this could be:
• something identified, developed and delivered locally between PCN’s
• a suggestion to your CCG GP cancer lead, commissioning or public health team
• a suggestion to the Cancer Alliance for a network wide opportunity
• Where possible work with cancer charities who likely have resources to support primary care e.g. CRUK, Macmillan