One of the first actions we took as a Partnership was to set up 13 integrated 
This was founded on strong multi-disciplinary team working, drawing on both generalist and specialist skills. In particular, this pioneered new ways of joint working between GPs and consultants and social care, strengthening primary care teams and the links between general practice, community health services and social care.
Teams around the Patient involves health and social care services working together to provide personalised health care and supporting patients to be as independent as possible in their own homes. Typically, this involves teams of social workers, district nurses and other healthcare professionals working closely together, usually sharing the same local base.
There are 13 TAPs across County Durham covering 69 GP practices. These are grouped together to provide 'wrap around' care to populations of between 30,000-50,000.
The key aims of each TAP is to:
- strengthen the approach to preventative care and improve health and wellbeing
- reduce admissions to Accident and Emergency departments
- reduce unnecessary bed days in hospital
- avoid inappropriate and permanent admission of people into residential or nursing care homes
- The TAPs have initially focused on the frail and elderly, but the long term ambition is to extend the remit to a wider group of patients, specifically to those with a broader range of long term conditions.