Primary Care Conference 2025
The theme of this year's Primary Care Conference is 'Closer to Home'. NHS Property Services will be exhibiting and hosting a breakfast session.
Event theme
Today, our health service stands at a crossroads. The Darzi report 'diagnosed' the issues facing the NHS today and the upcoming 10-year plan promises to reshape the health around the principals of community, prevention, and digital improvement. The future of primary and community care is set to change radically.
In light of these changes, this is an exciting opportunity to bring together our members alongside national and local experts and inspirational speakers to look to the future of care closer to home. The government has pledged to reverse the drift of resource into hospitals, instead investing in care closer to home. Moving the NHS’s focus away from acute settings and into primary and community services will require reformed financial flows and payment mechanisms; an integrated, empowered workforce equipped with the right skills; new infrastructure that can empower neighbourhood working; and truly integrated services at the most local level. Change on this scale offers once-in-a generation opportunities and challenges for both primary and community services. That’s why the theme of this year’s joint conference is practical solutions for delivering the government’s ambition to move ‘care closer to home’.
As the membership organisation that brings together, supports, and speaks for the whole healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the NHS Confederation is convening this conference as a unique opportunity for our primary and community members to connect, discuss and share solutions. By fostering this crucial collaboration between primary care and community services, we’re seeking to spearhead the kind of closely integrated working which will form the bedrock on which a radically reconfigured NHS will sit.
With the release of the 10-Year Plan, a multi-year Strategic Spending Review, and a promised ‘refresh’ of the Long-Term Workforce Plan all scheduled for the first half of 2025, this event could not come at a more fitting juncture.
Our breakfast session
Tackling the elephant in the room: Resetting the platform for Primary Care in NENC
Discover how NHS Property Services collaborated with the ICB and local GPs to tackle financial instability, lease complexities, and strained relationships. Learn more about the strategic drivers behind the initiative, the solutions and compromises agreed, and the impact that this work has delivered in NENC. Join us for a compelling discussion between Landlord, ICB and GP that promises to inspire and inform your approach to primary care estate challenges. Croissants, rather than elephants, are available as refreshments.
Our panel speakers
Karina Dare, Primary Care Estates Strategy Lead, NHS Property Services Ltd
Karina has 30 years' experience in health and disability sector in the UK and New Zealand working in primary and secondary care, clinical service management, change management and estates and facilities. She has 20 years’ experience in estates management and development including strategy for office, general practice and community hospital schemes. At NHSPS her work has focussed on optimisation of the NHS estate. She has a national role within our Estates Strategy team with a particular focus on Primary Care. Karina has a BA(Hons) in History, a PGC in Innovation & Improving Performance, and a CMI Certificate in Strategic Management & Leadership.
Ben Gammer, Estate Strategy Lead - North, NHS Property Services Ltd
Ben Gammer has been working in the property industry since 2001 in variety of roles including residential property management and international corporate real estate. Ben has a Post Graduate Diploma in Building Surveying and extensive experience of working in the healthcare sector. Since joining NHS Property Services in 2016 Ben has worked predominantly in the North East and Yorkshire and has recently taken up the role of Strategy Lead for the North of England. Ben is a qualified rugby union coach and an active member of his local pantomime society in Morpeth
Jamie Mitchell, Deputy Director Estates and Facilities Community and Primary Care, Northumbria Healthcare Facilities Management Limited (NHFM)
Jamie’s career has been incredibly varied, from managing bars and restaurants to running his own web design business, before going back to university and starting a 15-year career in the NHS. Jamie has worked in a number of Primary care and community commissioning organisations including County Durham and Darlington Primary Care Trust, NHS Property Services, Community Health Partnerships and a short period with the private sector before joining Northumberland and North Tyneside CCG as their Premises Lead and then Strategic Head of Commissioning at the North East North Cumbria Integrated Care Board.
Nigel Twelves, General Practitioner and Medical Director, Northumbria Primary Care (NPC)
Nigel Twelves qualified as a Doctor from Newcastle upon Tyne Medical School and trained as a GP on the Northumbria Vocational Training Scheme. He joined Ponteland Medical Group in 1994 and became a GP trainer in 1997. His interest in Occupational Health led to the creation of Newcastle Premier Health, where he is a director with a special interest in Aviation Medicine. Nigel is also a qualified Aeromedical Examiner for the Civil Aviation Authority and an appointed doctor for the Health and Safety Executive. In 2014, he helped create Northumbria Primary Care, developing an innovative corporate model for Primary Care delivery. Outside of work, Nigel is a keen sailor and a School Governor.
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