About Us
In 1995 a small group of GPs and others working with drug users in primary care realised that many of their colleagues in primary care were working in isolation. It was decided to hold a conference to bring these people together to share experiences and develop a support network. The first conference on 'Management of Drug Users in General Practice', was held in 1996. It was organised through the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) HIV Working Party (which since 2001 has been renamed RCGP Sex, Drugs and HIV Task Group).
Two of those involved in organising the conference (Chris Ford and Brian Whitehead) realised that there was little literature in the drugs field aimed at primary care and produced a newsletter in April 1996, before the conference. It was well received by recipients and soon developed into a quarterly newsletter entitled Substance Misuse Management in General Practice (SMMGP). The conference committee (Chris Ford, Brian Whitehead, Clare Gerada, Berry Beaumont, Judy Bury and Jean-Claude Barjolin) developed into the editorial panel for the newsletter and the mailing list increased, reflecting a real need to build a network for sharing ideas and information. In the early days the newsletter was written and sent out to the whole of the UK without additional resources or finance.
It was soon realised that this initiative needed administrative and personnel support and this led to the appointment of a 'Primary Care Development Adviser' in August 1999 to co-ordinate and to develop the network. The post-holder (Jean-Claude Barjolin) was originally based at the Substance Misuse Advisory Service (SMAS) in London. At the same time, an adviser (Jim Barnard) from the North-West sub-regional team, the Enhancing Shared Care Project, was seconded to SMAS to assist in the work. This expansion allowed for the introduction of a national advisory service to assist general practitioners and commissioners establish drug treatment in primary care. A telephone, electronic and face-to-face advice system was developed including the creation of the SMMGP web site.
Following a successful bid to the Treasury 'Invest to Save' budget, the service was further expanded in July 2000. Three and a half Primary Care Adviser posts were established and filled (Jean-Claude Barjolin, Jim Barnard, Simon Morton and Christina McArthur), as was a full-time administrator post (Mark Birtwistle). The advisers were supported by an advisory group of general practitioners and others. More recently a pharmacist (Martin Bennett), a representative from a drug user organisation, The Alliance (formerly the Methadone Alliance) (Alan Joyce) and a psychiatrist (Tom Carnwath) joined the advisory group. This enabled an expanded advice service to be offered across England. In addition, electronic means of communication and network building were developed. This involved incorporating an interactive discussion forum within the web site.
In 2002 SMAS as an organisation ceased to exist. Consequently, management and partnership arrangements were made with the Royal College of General Practitioners, Trafford Substance Misuse Services, and the National Treatment Agency. These arrangements ensured that SMMGP remained rooted in primary care while being close to the policy centre.
The project received funding from the Department of Health and the RCGP in April 2004 that enabled them to appoint three more Primary Care Advisors. The posts were filled by Kate Halliday (Midlands), Annas Dixon (South West) and Lisa Stanway (London and South East). The new advisors and Jim Barnard (North) continued to help develop shared care and improve local services as well as supporting the RCGP Regional Clinical Leads.
The project was commissioned by the RCGP to develop and run the RCGP Certificate in the Management of Drug Misuse - Part 1, and successfully ran 5 national events and enabled over 300 GPs to obtain the full Part 1 certificate. More details on the Part 1 can be found in the RCGP section of the web site.
Recently the SMMGP has had a significant reduction of its funding from the DH. This has meant that we are concentrating on our core business. Our core business is being a clinical network for primary care, and we will be focussing all out attention on that. This will mean an increase in our networking role, the creation of a formal membership scheme through which we can consult and inform the field more efficiently and increasing the infortmation resources at our disposal. We are sure that the network itself will continue to grow and thrive, although we will not be offering the same advisory services as before. The web site and Network newsletter will continue as before.
This change has of course involved staff losses and this has been agreat disappointment to us. Many of you will be aware of the fantastic work done by Kate Halliday, Annas Dixon, Christina McArthur and Mark Birtwistle and they are a great loss... we thank them for their great contribution and wish them a very successful fututre".