PML is commissioned by the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire & West Berkshire Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) to provide a Community Gynaecology Service. The service is provided by experienced GPs and consultants who are supervised by a Community Gynaecology Clinical Lead, and work closely with the Oxford University Hospitals NHS FT Gynaecology Department.
The service takes referrals from GPs in Oxfordshire, triaging each case and, if appropriate, offers telephone and face appointments in Banbury, Kidlington, Oxford City, Long Hanborough, Ardington and Sonning Common.
The scope of the service covers all patients aged 14 years and over with a Gynaecology presentation needing investigation and treatment, which includes the following Tier 1 list:
- Provision and fitting of all non-contraceptive intrauterine devices (IUD and IUS), on the BOB ICB formulary where this is unavailable in local practices;
- Management/support of post coital bleeding;
- Failed cervical screening test tests;
- Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) unresponsive to initial treatment;
- Inter-menstrual bleeding;
- Management of menopause symptoms, initiating and optimising HRT;
- Lost coil threads investigation;
- Prolapse assessment/ring pessaries fitting and monitoring;
- Management of polyps.
In addition to this, Community Gynaecology has undertaken a consultant-led clinic that provides endometrial sampling in the community, taking and processing biopsies for patients to further reduce the demand on secondary care.
We aim to confirm the outcome of your assessment quickly but you should contact your GP practice if you have any queries.
PML have also been commissioned by Northamptonshire ICB to run a pilot Community Gynaecology Service in Northants, commencing in Spring 2022.
PML provided counselling services in partnership with Oxfordshire Health NHS Foundation Trust (OHFT). This service ended in March 2024 and is now being provided solely by OHFT.
As part of Oxfordshire Talking Therapies, PML counsellors worked to help reduce risk and support people to understand themselves and their situation better. The PML service specialised in counselling for depression.
Find out more about Oxfordshire Talking Therapies here.
PML provides rapid community assessment and intervention to people in their homes to avoid hospital admissions and facilitate discharge from hospital. The Hospital at Home team works closely with local hospitals and GP practices to facilitate early discharges by supporting patients and continuing treatments initiated in hospital, after they have returned home. The service is available to patients in the North and North East of Oxfordshire every day between 8:00am and 10:00pm.
This service provides a community based, sub-acute alternative to non-elective acute admission to hospital, including:
- Rapid community assessment and intervention in the patient’s home environment to avoid acute admission where safe and appropriate to do so.
- Clinical intervention to facilitate and enable timely discharge from acute admission.
- Holistic care that promotes and supports individuals in maintaining their independence.
- Integrated operational delivery across the sub-acute urgent care pathway to ensure high quality, safe care that minimises patient delays.
The Hospital at Home team of Registered Nurses, Emergency Practitioner and Assistant Practitioners, work closely with the patient’s own GP who provides medical oversight of the patient’s needs. Examples of the clinical issues the service addresses are:
- Patients experiencing difficulty coping at home due to various illnesses.
- Exacerbations of chronic diseases (including COPD, heart failure, diabetes, dementia).
- Sudden onset medical illness in frail elderly.
- Acute infections e.g. cellulitis or respiratory infection.
- Urinary tract infections.
- Care following elective surgery.
- Dehydration.
- Patients requiring support at the end of their life.
- Post hospital discharge monitoring.
Dear team,
I just wanted to pass on a big thank you to all of you for your support and ongoing hard work in recent weeks and months. This is particularly after support for our surgery with a patient requiring IV/ sub-cut fluids. I know it is so easy to overlook everyone’s efforts, especially in the current climate and knowing things are only likely to become more trying. Your efforts, support and communication have been second-to-none and I am so grateful of that. I hope you can pass this on to all of the team from us here at the Practice.
The Primary Care Visiting Service is made up of a team of Emergency Care clinicians working closely with GP practices and other Community Health and Social Care services. The team provide home visits to patients on behalf of their GP. This service was initially provided in North Oxfordshire and was rolled out across to the PML Federation localities in Oxfordshire during 2016.
The aim is to identify the need for early support before a patient’s condition deteriorates and they need to be admitted to hospital.
I’d just like to say a big thank you to XXXXX and indeed all the PCVS team, since other clinicians have been equally helpful in the recent past, as have the admin team.
XXXX saw a patient for me late afternoon on Tuesday 21st December. The visit request came to us late and I thought I’d missed the boat for a PCVS referral, but he squeezed her in. It’s a visit that I would otherwise have had to do much later that evening as I was in the middle of clinic which didn’t finish until very late. It turned out to be a complicated scenario which needed thought and a fair bit of sorting out.
PCVS makes a huge difference to GPs, especially in these more complex scenarios later in the day, as these are visits that somehow, we would otherwise have to shoehorn into frantic days. It is very much appreciated.
The Virtual Ward is a hospital admission / step down service for patients generally over the age of 75.
The aim of the service is to:
- ensure the patient is reviewed holistically to ensure any unmet needs are addressed after a discharge / prior to admission
- support the patient remaining as independent and safe as possible in their own home
Referrals are typically to:
- a therapy service for some rehabilitation in the patient’s own home
- a referral to crisis care if the patient is struggling to undertake personal activities of daily living, etc.
The Frailty Team is led by GPs who have a dedicated frailty coordinator to assist and respond to referrals and to ensure that the patient has the most appropriate professional assigned to them for their ongoing care needs.
The team meets daily to discuss the caseload and plan for patients care going forward.
Patients get referred in the service two ways:
- After Discharge – Any patients coming out of hospital over the age of 75 will be considered for the service if no overlaps with other care are noted.
- Prior to Discharge – Usual GPs can also refer into the service, patient’s that they feel are struggling at home and want to avoid a future admission.
Each patient’s period of care will differ but by the time we discharge, it is hoped they have all their unmet needs addressed and a final Complete Geriatric Assessment Form is completed, so that any health care professional working with the patient in the future will have a snapshot of the patient’s needs going forward.
PML provides proactive assessment and support to people with long-term conditions and their carers, promoting independence at home and preventing unplanned admission to hospital. The Collaborative Care Team (CCT) is available to patients registered with 10 GP practices in South Northants. It comprises a Nurse clinician, Assistant practitioner and Occupational Therapist and operates Monday to Friday between 8:30am and 5:00pm.
The collaborative care teams are tasked with assessing patients predominantly with long-term conditions and complex medical needs, helping and supporting them to manage their condition and prevent unplanned hospital admissions. This support includes education, referring to other agencies and supporting carers looking after these patients.
The aims of this service are to:
- Reduce Non Elective Admissions and A&E attendances.
- Reduction in Length of Stay in hospital beds.
- Increase the number of personalised care plans.
- Increase in the number of frailty assessments.
- Increase the number of patients actively managed by the collaborative care team.
- Provide collaborative care support.
I was very impressed with the care and advice given.
PML provides an Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) at the Fiennes Centre in Banbury. The service commenced on the 2 February 2022 and operates from 9am–11:00pm.
The service is GP led and provides treatment for patients with minor illness. The UTC will provide a service for redirected patients from the Horton Hospital Emergency Department and take referrals from 111 for primary care, in addition to supporting practices locally and providing cover for PLT.
