What is the Federation?

The Federation is a legal entity formed in 2015 with the support of North Durham CCG. It is comprised of 5 board members. It covers the same geographical area as the PCN (although this is not always the case in other areas throughout the country). As it is a ltd company it can support the financial and legal aspects of the PCN and Federation.
As the Federation is a ltd company they are able to subcontract services back to General practice which allows the Federation to support its member practices. The QASI and research projects are examples of this.

In 2016 the Federation began to deliver the weekend scheme to help patients stay out of hospital. There are 2 GPs on both a Saturday and Sunday who go out to assess and treat elderly or frail patients as requested by their personal GPs. This covers the geographical locations of Derwentside and Chester-Le-Street.
This runs alongside the Enhanced Access which is partly delivered by the Federation with Extended Hours out of Tanfield View and partly subcontracted to each of the 12 member practices to be delivered locally by their team from their practice. A set number of hours per population size are required to be delivered by the ICS (new CCG) in order to get the funding available for this service provision.