Cheshire and Merseyside primary care excellence on display at General Practice Awards 2025

Primary care teams and staff from Cheshire and Merseyside won three categories and were highly commended in another, at a prestigious national awards ceremony.

The General Practice Awards are an annual celebration recognising those working in primary care and general practice in the UK.

The 2025 awards ceremony was held in London on Friday, 5 December and was attended by finalists from eight GP practices and primary care networks (PCNs) from the region.

The Sefton Mobile Cervical Screening Partnership, consisting of South Sefton PCN, Southport and Formby PCN, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside and NHS England North West, received the Clinical Improvement Award for Public Health and Prevention.

This innovative pilot used Cheshire and Wirral Partnership’s Living Well Bus to bring cervical screening directly into community settings, removing access barriers and improving uptake among people who were overdue or had never been screened. 

Across 33 sessions, 321 people attended, with 249 being successfully screened – 35% of whom were overdue and over 10% being first-timers.

The model has already been replicated across five Places in Cheshire and Merseyside and has been shared nationally as best practice, demonstrating its sustainability and impact on reducing inequalities and preventing avoidable deaths from cervical cancer. 

South Sefton PCN’s Medicines Management Team was also named Pharmacist Team of the Year for their innovative, system-wide approach to medicines optimisation. 

Working alongside NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Sefton Place, the team operates a Medicines Management Hub across 19 GP practices, delivering high-quality clinical support, structured medication reviews, post-discharge reconciliations and personalised care plans. 

Their work was noted for the positive impact it has had on improving patient safety and outcomes, reducing GP workload and enhancing the continuity of care – particularly for vulnerable and older patients.

Widnes PCN took home the Clinical Improvement Award for Long Term Conditions for its Cardio-Renal-Metabolic Quality Improvement Programme. 

Recognising the inequalities in the diagnosis and management of complex cardio-renal-metabolic (CRM) conditions, the team streamlined care pathways and used real-world data to help deliver faster diagnosis, earlier access to life-saving treatments, and multidisciplinary support closer to home via a wellness hub.

The initiative has potentially saved 125 lives and avoided 691 hospital admissions. The average waiting time from referral to diagnosis was reduced from 33 weeks to eight weeks. Patient experience also improved, with the wellness hub leading to fewer appointments and reduced travel time.

Elsewhere, The Elms Medical Practice in Chester was highly commended in the Sustainability in Practice Award category, recognising its commitment to putting sustainability at the heart of everyday practice to drive meaningful impact for people, communities, and the planet.

Rounding off the finalists for Cheshire and Merseyside were:

• Widnes PCN for PCN of the Year.
• Dr Henry Chan from Fir Park Medical Centre in Widnes for General Practitioner of the Year.
• Newton and Haydock PCN’s Frailty Team in St Helen and Knowsley for Nursing Team of the Year.
• Karl Pearce, Social Prescriber at Four Acre Health Centre in St Helens for Extended Practice Team Member of the Year.
• Dr Adrian Harrop from Brownlow Health Central in Liverpool for Future Leader in General Practice.
• Brownlow Health’s Homeless Outreach Diabetes Service in Liverpool for Clinical Improvement: Long Term Conditions.

The full list of winners can be found here.