Our Work

7-Day GP Service

Do you need a GP appointment outside of traditional 9-5 hours? We have the service for you.

Our 7-Day GP Service offers appointments during evenings and weekends. This service is for advanced booking planned care and it is not an emergency service.

If you need an evening or weekend appointment, you can call your registered GP Practice and ask about the 7-Day GP. Find out more about our 7-Day GP service.

Key Information

Opening Times: Monday - Friday, 5pm-9pm. Saturday 9am-5pm and Sunday, 9am-1pm.

Address: The Family Surgery, 107 Liverpool Road, Birkdale, Southport, PR8 4DB

Accessibility: Wheelchair access, lift, hearing-loop device and disabled parking

Digital Team

The Primary Care Network Digital Team supports both the Primary Care Network and GP practices to improve health and wellbeing by utilising data to identify those in need of support or targeted interventions, improving processes for capturing and using information and supporting practices with any digital requirements.

The team also work on projects such as improving capacity and access to ensure patients are seen appropriately and quickly, how to best utilise technology to create smoother patient pathways and testing new technologies and software.

Enhanced Health in Care Homes

Our Enhanced Health in Care Homes (EHCH) team works with care home residents, their families and care home staff to provide personalised care, improve outcomes, and promote independence for people living in care homes.

We provide individual assessments and personalised plans for care home residents, which aim to keep residents in the best health possible, and ensure their health choices are respected.

Our team delivers the National Framework for Enhanced Health in Care Homes.

For further information see our EHCH E-Portal.

Early Cancer Detection

We’re working with GP practices across the region to improve the rates of early cancer diagnosis. The Primary Care Network Cancer and Practice Engagement Lead regularly meets with GP Cancer Leads across Southport and Formby to look at cancer screening and referral rates, this work is supported by our Cancer Care Coordinator, with the aim of standardising practice across the Primary Care Network to offer the best care available to patients.

Linking in with the Southport Macmillan Cancer Centre, the Primary Care Network also funds a team of Cancer Link Workers who offer emotional and practical support to patients with a new cancer diagnosis. Through a one-to-one consultation, the Cancer Link Workers can provide a listening ear to patients or their carer, helping to address any non-clinical worries or concerns they may have by signposting or referring to local and national support.

Referrals can be made on your behalf from your GP practice to the team, or alternatively you can contact the centre on 01704 533024. 

Health and Wellbeing Coach

St. Mark's Medical Centre originally piloted this role and due to great success, it has continued. A Health and Wellbeing Coach supports people to take steps to improve their physical and mental health, based on what matters to them. They help people develop their knowledge, skills and confidence in managing their health and wellbeing, preventing-term illness, prevent existing conditions from getting worse and improving health and wellbeing outcomes.

They can help by:

• providing coaching support to help you manage your condition

• working with you to identify your health and wellbeing goals

• signposting you to helpful resources and peer support groups.

Mental Health Practitioners

The service is hosted by Mersey Care who employ a team of mental health specialists to provide non-urgent mental health assessments, either in person or online.

Patients are offered an initial assessment that can be up to one hour depending on patient need, from which a personalised plan is formulated and follow up appointments that are up to 30 minutes long.

Depending on what is clinically required, patients may be offered medication advice or changes, brief medical interventions or may be signposted to appropriate local services.

Referrals can only be made from clinicians within your own GP Practice to this service.

Projects

Complete Care Community: Complex Lives- fewer snakes, more ladders.

Southport and Formby Primary Care Network (PCN) covers a coastal population of mixed demographic but with undoubted inequality located in areas of Central Southport. The Chief Medical Officer’s Annual Report 2021-Health in Coastal Communities highlights the issues facing coastal populations and in Southport we recognise the impact of deprivation, physical and mental illness, substance misuse, homelessness, low quality housing, migrant population and seasonal employment are having on health outcomes. Our intended focus on inequality in Southport and Formby PCN is the population segment that experiences many of these risk factors requiring disproportionate support but still suffer poor outcomes - those living with Complex Lives.  The Complex Lives population cohort defines those who represent some of the most marginalised and complex individuals in our services.

Complete Care Community: Aims

Our aim as a proposed demonstrator site is to develop a collaboration of stakeholders and patients with Complex Lives. This collaboration will test and document how partner agencies can re-calibrate their focus, language and attitudes, to improve service delivery for the complex lives population. We aim to do this through service user engagement and co-design and in a in a way that allows other sectors nationally to titrate our findings and meet exactly their own local need with no or minimal additional expenditure. The PCN coordinates a monthly steering of partner organisations such as statutory services, voluntary sector and health partners to ensure this work is progressing, outcomes are improving for patients and gaps are being identified and raised with appropriate partner organisations.

Social Prescribing Link Workers

Our team of Social Prescribing Link Workers supports patients to engage with community groups, services and activities, helping patients to tackle issues such as social isolation, loneliness, low mood, and complex social needs. Social Prescribing Link Workers connect people with community-based support, including activities and services that meet practical, social, and emotional needs.

Anybody within a GP practice in Southport and Formby can refer patients to the Social Prescribing team, who will ask the patient about their priorities, and offer practical and emotional support, alongside signposting the patient to services that may be able to help them improve their health and wellbeing.

Our Social Prescribing Link Workers are hosted in partnership with Brighter Living Partnership and Sefton CVS.

Short videos about the Social Prescribing team

Senior Social Prescribing Link Worker Nikki talks about the service

Local resident Pam talks about his experience with the NHS social prescribing service

Local resident Danny talks about his experience with the NHS social prescribing service

Team of Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians

Our team of Clinical Pharmacists work across the area to support GP practices with appropriate prescribing of medications. Pharmacists have specialist expertise in the use of medicines, helping patients with their health and social needs by reducing inequalities in health care. Pharmacists can also help people to get the best from medications or supporting in managing long-term conditions such as blood pressure, diabetes etc. 
 
Pharmacy technicians play an important role, complementing clinical pharmacists and other members of the Primary Care Network multi-disciplinary team. Pharmacy technicians are different to clinical pharmacists as they are not able to prescribe or make clinical decisions, instead working under supervision to ensure effective and efficient use of medicines. Pharmacy technicians can conduct simple medication reviews, and screen patients to identify those who require a GP, pharmacist or practice nurse review, carry out medicine’s optimisation tasks including effective medicine administration (e.g. checking inhaler technique), and medicines reconciliation.