About Us

What are Primary Care Networks?

Since the NHS was created in 1948, our health needs have changed. People are living longer, and more of us are managing long-term conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, or mental health challenges. This means many people need regular access to their local health services.

To meet these needs, GP practices now work more closely together — alongside community services, mental health teams, pharmacies, hospitals, social care and voluntary organisations. These partnerships are called Primary Care Networks (PCNs).

PCNs build on the strengths of traditional GP services, while enabling care to be more:

• Proactive – focusing on preventing illness and supporting healthier living.
• Personalised – tailoring care to each person’s circumstances.
• Coordinated – ensuring different services work together smoothly.
• Local – delivered closer to home, within the communities people know.

Each of the 1,250 PCNs across England usually serves a community of 30,000–50,000 people. They are large enough to benefit from shared expertise and resources, but small enough to retain the personal care valued by patients and GPs.
Every PCN is led by a Clinical Director (a GP, nurse, pharmacist or other senior clinician), who brings practices and partners together to improve care in their local area.

What is Moorlands Rural Primary care network

Moorlands Rural PCN is a partnership of seven GP practices, caring for around 40,000 patients across our local area.

What makes us different:

• Local leadership – guided by two Clinical Directors and supported by our PCN Business Manager.
• Collaboration – working closely with our local GP Federation, which helps sustain general practice and supports the recruitment of new specialist roles into our teams.
• Community focus – shaping services around the needs of our patients and the unique character of our rural communities.

What difference does our PCN make?

For patients, PCNs mean care is more joined-up, more accessible, and more tailored to individual needs. At Moorlands Rural PCN, this includes:

• Care that adapts to you – from advice and support for people who are generally well, to fully coordinated care for those with complex health needs.
• Extra services locally – new clinics and services offered within your own GP practice, reducing the need to travel further afield.
• Specialist staff – bringing new expertise into practices, such as Social Prescribers, Pharmacists and Physiotherapists.
• Extended access – more ways to see the right health professional at the right time.