Our Services

The Swift PCN Paediatric Hub launched in April 2024, in collaboration with the General Paediatrics Team at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

This is an ongoing project that aims to reduce the waiting time for children on the General Paediatric department waiting list by seeing them closer to home. Patients can also be referred into the service by their GP or clinican. The project also aims to increase the paediatric knowledge within staff in the Swift PCN practices.

Every month, a clinic takes place at Bedminster Family Practice, where appropriate patients are seen by a consultation paediatrician along with a clinical staff member from one of the PCN practices. We also run a monthly multidisciplinary team meeting, where clinicians meet for support and learning.

Privacy Notice

For those of you whose child is registered at a Swift PCN practice and currently on the waiting list for a general Paediatric appointment at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, GP practices within Swift PCN have teamed up with University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust to create the Paediatric Hub, to help reduce wait times for paediatric care. If you are currently on the hospital wait list for a general Paediatric appointment, your child’s patient details will be shared to enable your GP practice to offer a clinic appointment with the Paediatric Hub, held at Bedminster Family Practice. Your contact details & child’s medical history (SCR) will be shared for the purpose of direct care. You are free to decline the appointment on behalf of your child, and we will make sure your place remains on the waiting list.  

You may be contacted after your appointment for feedback on your experience as part of a patient satisfaction survey.

Swift PCN are working with University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, North Bristol Trust and Somerset, Wiltshire, Avon and Gloucestershire Cancer Alliance on the successful Teledermatology Pilot project in BNSSG.

The project report developed with BNSSG PCNs has demonstrated the project benefits for patients and systems across the board.

The project involves some practices within Swift PCN working as ‘hub’ sites, where a trained member of staff will take photographs of lesions with a specialised camera, to be sent to the hospital alongside the patient’s suspected skin cancer referral.

The aim of the project is to provide care closer to home with an 80% reduction in the number of urgent face-to-face assessment for cancer.

Social Prescribing Link Workers (also known as Social Prescribers) are employed across our 7 practices in partnership with Knowle West Health Park Company.

Your Social Prescribing Link Worker is there to listen to you and put you in touch with the people and activities that might help you to feel better.

Social Prescribing can help you to have more control over your own health and find ways to improve how you feel in a way that suits you.

For example, that might be connecting you to a community group to meet more people or an advice service to support you with your bills. You can self-refer into this service. Link for more information and the referral form – Social Prescribing Service – KWHLC

Swift PCN in partnership with Knowle West Health Park Company have employed Kathy Kingdon, our Community Wellbeing Coach. Kathy can spend up to 6 sessions with you. She can make home visits or meet you wherever is both accessible and feels safe for you.

Kathy works to find out about an individual’s physical and mental health, what barriers are stopping them getting more active, and what support would help keep them motivated. You can self-refer into Kathy’s service via your GP practice.

Swift PCN has partnered with Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (AWP) to employ four Mental Health Workers that are based across 6 of our 7 practices.

There is no ‘formal’ referral into this service and practitioners sit within the general practice team. The mental health worker will carry out an initial assessment appointment and then will offer up to 3 follow up appointments.

They can work with you to build a plan around self-management and support onward referrals if necessary. Mental Health Workers can also offer brief psychological interventions. You can access this service via your GP practice.

South Bristol is one of 43 pilot sites in the country taking part in the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP), a plan that aims to move care closer to home and support people within their local neighbourhoods.

The PCN team has been working with a range of healthcare, community and voluntary sector partners to develop a programme that supports people living with multiple long-term health conditions.

A cohort of patients with five or more long-term health conditions, including pain, hypertension, diabetes, anxiety and depression, were invited to join an eight-week programme consisting of four mental health and wellbeing sessions and four lifestyle-focused sessions covering exercise, cooking, debt support and pain management.

The programme has been designed to help people better understand and manage their health, improve wellbeing, build confidence and connect with local services and support available within their community. A key part of the programme is bringing people together to share experiences, learn from one another and develop supportive relationships with others facing similar challenges.

As this is a pilot programme, we are gathering feedback from participants, staff and partner organisations to understand what works well and how future neighbourhood-based services could be developed. A detailed report will be written following the first cohort and further cohorts are planned from October onwards.

Our aim is to help people feel more empowered to manage their own health and wellbeing, whilst strengthening connections between healthcare services, community organisations and local residents across South Bristol.