North East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust serves the population of Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham and surrounding villages
When the concept of PALS was first highlighted it was easy to see how this service could operate within an acute setting but it was not so easy in a primary care setting. The Primary Health Care Teams locally provided the building blocks for the PALS. It was recognised that practice staff already provided an information service to their patients. The PCT decided to build on this by formalising the processes, providing the necessary training at practice level and providing a PALS Manager at PCT level.
It was decided to pilot the service across two Primary Health Care Teams and one community clinic prior to rlling it out across the PCT. The initial proposal was for the service to be supported by a PALS lead with Co-ordinators at Primary Health Care Team level. Awareness sessions were held with staff around PALS and more focused training is in progress. The pilot began on 12 November 2001.
Within the South Humber area, we have a PALS Strategic Group that is co-ordinating the approach to PALS across two Primary Care Trusts and one large acute trust covering three sites. Through this group we have established working groups to look at developing common PALS activity data togethr with a website for the service and the public.
Being part of the Tren Pathfinder group has enabled us to share ideas and learn from each other's experiences as the service has been rolled out across a variety of settings. This is very much an evolutionary process. We are excited by the challenge and look forward to broader implementation of the service
Contact:
Christine Bromley
North East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust
Tel: 01472 874111 ext 2532
email@ christine@nelincschc.f9.co.uk
