About The Cluster
Clusters are a network of local health and social care organisations, working together to improve the health and lives of patients in the area. The Central Vale Cluster has a population of 64000 patients, organised around 6 GP practices in Barry and 1 in Sully.
A budget is provided by the Welsh Assembly Government to facilitate projects that work across practices and services, to help sustainability within the primary care team, and develop new ways of working together. This is coordinated by the local GP practices with key local partners.
There are seven practices which operate in the Central Vale Cluster area which include:
Since starting in 2014 example projects have included
Employing pharmacists, initially as a cluster to test the concept, now most GP practices now employ their own pharmacist as a key part of the team
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Developing a ‘first point of contact’ physiotherapist model, so people with joint problems can be seen by a physio rather than a GP
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Working closely with MIND to support people with mental health problems
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Develop an acute unscheduled care hub, where patients with acute medical problems from any surgery in the cluster can be dealt with on the day, freeing up capacity within GP practices to deal with complex ongoing cases
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Trained up practice staff to so patients can have blood tests done in their own surgery to help capacity at Barry Hospital
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Delivered flu vaccinations for housebound patients
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Supported practices with equipment and changes to enable safe working and safe environments for patients during the pandemic, including equipment to help the covid vaccine roll out