Vertical integration of GP practices with acute hospitals in England and Wales: why, how and what are the consequences for primary care delivery?

A development session with Jon Sussex and Manni Sidhu 

The NIHR Birmingham, RAND and Cambridge Evaluation (BRACE) Centre 

Fostering greater integration between primary and secondary care, sustaining primary care in the face of workforce shortages, and managing patient flows to acute hospitals are recurring themes in United Kingdom (UK) health care policy. One approach which might address such challenges is acute hospitals taking over the running of general practices, a form of ‘vertical integration’ in health care.

Jon Sussex (RAND Europe) and Manni Sidhu (University of Birmingham) share their insights from a recent rapid evaluation where they investigated the implementation of vertical integration between GP practices and organisations running acute hospitals in three case study sites across the UK. They have analysed the drivers and need for vertical integration and its subsequent impact on care delivery, governance, and workforce.

Who are BRACE and what do they do?

The NIHR funded BRACE Centre was launched in June 2018. Focusing on innovations in health and social care service delivery and organisation, BRACE conducts rapid evaluations, which examine not only what works, but also how and why things work (or don’t) and in what context. We aim to produce rigorous, timely and useful evidence that can inform the transformation of services and outcomes across the NHS.