Bringing Healthcare Into The Community

• Care Closer To Home
• Healthcare At The Heart Of Everything We Do
• Patient Education

About GPCARE

GPCARE Group CIC (formally Rochdale East Cluster) was founded in June 2006, following a directive from the Department of Health, which set out guidelines for General Practitioners and front line clinicians to redesign healthcare services that better meet the needs of their patients and to implement Practice Based Commissioning.

In May 2008, GPCARE was officially granted recognition as a Community Interest Company, a not for profit organisation, and is now operating as such with the Healthcare for it's 78,026 patients (as at January 2011), at the heart of everything we do, bringing care closer to home and back into the community.

GPCARE, as its original name suggests, consists of fourteen general practices across the East of Rochdale, covering Milnrow with, Milnrow Village Practice and Stonefield St Surgery, Littleborough, consisting of The Village Medical Centre, Trinity Medical Centre, Littleborough Group Practice and Pennine Surgery. Mark St Surgery, East St Surgery, Yorkshire St Surgery, Croft Shifa Health Centre, The Dawes Family Practice, Smallbridge Medical Centre and Healey Surgery all covering Central Rochdale.

We have a formal Board of five Executive Directors, all of which are GPs working on specific topics of healthcare, and a Practice Manager, supported by two non-executive Directors, one of which links directly to our patients via a patient focus group and one of which works in partnership with the Local Authority and the local Primary Care Trust, NHS HMR, Heywood Middleton and Rochdale.

The Team supporting the twelve practices are Traci Berry, Chief Operating Officer, Gail Whitehead, Company Secretary, Keith Pearson, Prescribing Advisor, Shafia Malik, Information Analyst and Farkhunda Javed, Pharmacy Technician.

With the combined knowledge and skills between our Board and the team, we are committed to providing the ultimate in Healthcare for you, the patient, making the best use of funding to redesign and deliver healthcare services, helping you manage long term conditions, providing preventative medicine advice and reducing waiting times at hospital, ensuring the patient is at the forefront of everything we do.

So what is Practice Based Commissioning (PBC)?
PBC is about engaging practices and other primary care professionals in the commissioning of services. Through PBC, front line clinicians are being provided with the resources and support to become more involved in commissioning decisions.

Practice Based Commissioning will lead to high quality services for patients in local and convenient settings. GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals are in the prime position to translate patient needs into redesigned services that best deliver what local people want and need.

Why a Community Interest Company?
A CIC is a new type of company, designed for social enterprises that want to use their funds for the benefit of the community.

A CIC is a 'not for profit' Company, which is limited by guarantee and not limited by shares. In brief, should a CIC fold, any funds which are still held by the Company, a registered Charity is to be named as the beneficiary.