The majority of interactions older people have in relation to their health take place in primary and community care. The BGS Community and Primary Care Group has been formed in response to an increasingly strong emphasis on care closer to home for older people, with the aim of reducing avoidable hospital admission and the associated risk of potential harms such as deconditioning and delayed discharge.
The Community and Primary Care Group was initially created by merging two existing and well-established BGS groups - the GeriGPs group, and the Community Geriatrics Special Interest Group (SIG). These two groups shared a common goal to improve the quality of care for older people beyond acute settings.
Community and primary care provision for older people covers a broad spectrum of services and care settings, from care homes to primary care networks to emerging models of community care such as Hospital at Home and Urgent Care responses.
Why have the groups been merged?
In addition to the reasons outlined above, there are some other benefits to combining the two groups to form one single group.
- The groups will have a larger number of members when combined and therefore a stronger single voice, which will help to influence policy and practice across different care settings in the UK.
- A multidisciplinary perspective is vital to influence how community and primary care are delivered. The GeriGPs group and Community Geriatrics SIG have not typically attracted members from across the whole multidisciplinary team, and this new group will help encourage members from the allied health professions and beyond.
- Integration is becoming an increasingly important priority for the NHS, and reinforcing community care and primary care silos within the BGS does not align with these wider objectives. The BGS will benefit from having a strong body of professionals who can feed in experience from the frontline, offer examples of innovation and comment on new guidance and plans.
- By combining these groups and appointing an officer to sit on the BGS Board, the Society can benefit from greater representation from community and primary care to balance the strong acute care focus of much of our Board.
The BGS consulted members on these proposals in November 2022. You can read the full rationale for this decision by reading the information that was provided during the consultation here.
Who can join?
Membership of the Community and Primary Care Group is open to healthcare professionals from all professions within the membership of the BGS with an interest in community and primary care. Any GP or trainee GP who joins the BGS is automatically a member of the Community and Primary Care Group. BGS non-members can also join the group but they will not be eligble to run for any officer positions.
How can I become a member of the new group?
How else can I get involved?
- Co-Chair (healthcare professional working in community care)
- Co-Chair (GP, ideally working in primary care)
- Committee Secretary
- Research lead
- Ageing Well/Anticipatory Care lead
- Ageing Well/Urgent Community Response lead
- Care homes/Enhanced Health in Care Homes sub-group lead
- GP sub-group lead
- Nurse/AHP representative
- Scotland representative
- Northern Ireland representative
- Wales representative
- England regions representative
- Communications lead
Details of these roles and current vacancies are being added to this page (below) as they become available. If the role you are interested in is not currently advertised, please email j.gough@bgs.org.uk with an expression of interest.
