How GP practices can secure a competitive edge delivering primary care By: Tracey Vell | Post date: 20/12/2017 | Time to read article: 1 mins The information within this article was correct at the time of publishing. Last updated 14/11/2018 () ★ Communicate Contracts Financial management Marketing & business development New care models Show More With the publication of the STPs and the move towards primary care working at scale and out of hospital care, the market is becoming increasingly competitive. Can you offer some advice about understanding your particular strengths and weaknesses and securing competitive advantage? Dr Tracey Vell, Chief Executive of Manchester Local Medical Committee, discusses ways GP practices can remain competitive within primary care. Transcript Sustainability and Transformation Plans that are emerging in localities at the moment are signalling a change in provision. So potentially, we are decreasing hospital utilisation to bring care closer to a patient’s home. Whether that becomes more competitive in primary care with lots of different providers wanting a similar sort of contract is a possibility but actually my view is we should be integrating and working with all the providers that exist. We currently don’t use voluntary and community organisations so well, I’d like to align with them rather than compete with them. And I think there isn’t enough workforce in General Practice and therefore we should be incorporating wider teams anyway. But how do we make ourselves more competitive? Well, the Multispecialty Community Provider contract applies largely to multi-speciality providers, particularly General Practice, because it isn’t able to be let unless GPs are involved in it and I’m guessing that contract gives us the competitive edge if we wish to take up that. Share this article Share Tweet Medical Protection Expert Tracey Vell Tracey Vell has worked in general practice for over 23 years. Now, she also acts as chief executive of Manchester LMC and chair of the Association of Greater Manchester LMCs, as well as working nationally on the New Models of Care Technical Committee.