A new eRA for Invicta Health

We are pleased to announce we will be working with Invicta Health to assist in delivering services to improve access to GPs for patients as part of a Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund pilot in South Kent Coast. Invicta Health CIC are a federation of GP practices working across East Kent.

The challenges this area faces include a rapidly ageing population, with 21% of the population aged over 65 years. As a result, this brings a subsequent rise in long-term conditions (e.g. coronary heart disease, diabetes) resulting in higher demands placed on healthcare services. To add to this, there are significant health inequalities in the area with a difference of 13 years in life expectancy across the CCG.

In order to address these challenges, Invicta Health aims to improve and enhance GP access, Out Of Hours and out of hospital services by providing integrated solutions, which will be targeted at specific population groups including the housebound, the elderly and those in care homes. Service improvements will hopefully reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and provide care closer to home.

Black Pear Software is a primary supplier providing the technology required to underpin this scheme and in the first instance will provide eRA (Electronic Referrals & Appointments) to enable the sharing of GP records. The overall solution will involve:

• Creation of primary care hubs at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone and Buckland Hospital in Dover open between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week.
• Availability of both routine and urgent care appointments including booked appointments and patient walk-in services, allowing patients to use the hub like a branch surgery of any of the local practices.
• Patient’s GP records made available within the hubs with patient outcomes returned to the patient’s GP practice for inclusion in their main record. The federated practices use a combination of EMIS Web and Vision, which will interoperate seamlessly between practice and hubs.