Primary Care Network (PCN)

Preston and South Ribble PCN

St Fillans Medical Centre is part of the Preston & South Ribble Primary Care Network (PCN), a group of four local GP practices working together to provide services for approximately 28,000 patients across our local area.

Our PCN practices are:

• St Fillans Medical Centre
• Longton Health Centre
• Fishergate Hill Surgery
• The Beeches Medical Centre

What is a primary care network?

Primary Care Networks bring neighbouring GP practices together so that they can share expertise, staff and services and provide patients with a wider range of care closer to home.

By working together, our practices can provide services that may be difficult for individual practices to deliver alone, while patients remain registered with and continue to receive their usual GP care from their own practice.

Services provided through our PCN

Working together, the PCN provides a number of additional and enhanced services for our patients, including:

• Enhanced Access, providing additional appointments outside normal practice opening hours
• Enhanced Health in Care Homes, supporting residents and care home teams with more coordinated healthcare
• Vaccination programmes, where these are commissioned to be delivered through the PCN
• Additional specialist healthcare professionals who work alongside our practice teams

Our wider healthcare team

Through the PCN, patients can benefit from the skills and expertise of a wider range of healthcare professionals. These currently include:

• Social Prescribing Link Workers
• Clinical Pharmacists
• First Contact Physiotherapists
• Mental Health Practitioners

Depending on your needs, you may be offered an appointment with one of these professionals rather than a GP. This helps make sure you are seen by the right person, with the right expertise, for your particular healthcare needs.

You can find out more about Primary Care Networks and the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (DES) on the NHS England website.