Birmingham East & North Primary Care Trust

Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust (BEN PCT) was formed in 2006 following the amalgamation of the Eastern Birmingham PCT and the North Birmingham PCT. As part of the NHS, BEN PCT provides primary care, intermediate care and community services on behalf of 437,500 people living in Britain’s second city. The PCT employs over 1,700 people and is responsible for 237 GPs, working in 87 practices.

The Challenges

Of all patient contact with the NHS, approximately 90% of it occurs in general practice. In many areas, particularly in deprived urban areas, where the health need is greatest there are a number of sub-standard premises which limit the delivery of the service required.

NHS LIFT ( Local Improvement Finance Trust ) provides PCTs with the ability to invest in fit for purpose primary care trusts and BEN PCT invested in two such properties. They needed to equip the new premises with telephone systems which had multi-tenancy capabilities.

With 40 sites across the region, the cost of managing, supporting and maintaining all telephone systems was spiralling. BEN PCT wanted to control these costs and reduce them where possible while also making it easier for staff to communicate with each other. All of these challenges were pointed towards the need for BEN PCT to invest insystems that would facilitate the delivery of the best service to the public.