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Showing results for tags 'GP practice'.
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News Article
Three in four GP partners fear for staff safety as practice workload floods back
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Almost three quarters of GP partners are concerned about how to keep colleagues safe as numbers of patients attending practices return to pre-pandemic levels - with access to PPE a major worry, a GPonline poll has found. Half of the 185 GP partners responding to the poll said that they were either 'very worried' or 'slightly worried' about the government's ability to supply the PPE that GPs and practice staff needed to keep them as safe as possible through the rest of the pandemic. Only 9% said they were 'very confident' that the government would be able to supply adequate PPE, with a further 20% saying they were 'slightly confident'. Some 73% of GP partners said that they were concerned about how to ensure the safety of practice staff as the number of patients attending the surgery begins to rise. BMA GP committee chair Dr Richard Vautrey said keeping staff safe was 'a challenge for everyone in the NHS'. He told GPonline: 'Even months now into this crisis the government still hasn’t sorted out PPE in a way that means people have absolute confidence that they will have enough to meet their needs, and the growing needs of practices as they will need to be seeing more patients face-to-face for important procedures that can’t be done remotely. Read full story Source: GPonline, 8 June 2020 -
News Article
Coronavirus drugs trial to begin at UK homes and GP clinics
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Drugs that could relieve the symptoms of coronavirus in vulnerable patients and help them avoid admission to hospital are to begin trials in homes across the UK. The experiment, led by a team at Oxford University, seeks to test pre-existing treatments for older people in the community who show signs of the disease. Known as Principle, or “Platform Randomised trial of interventions against Covid-19 in older People”, it is the first to take place in primary care settings such as health clinics. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Independent, 12 May 2020 -
News ArticleGPs will now be able to access records for patients registered at other practices during the coronavirus epidemic in a major relaxation of current rules. The move will allow appointments to be shared across practices, and NHS 111 staff will also have access to records to let them book direct appointments for patients at any GP practice or specialist centre. The change in policy has been initiated by NHS Digital and NHSX to enable swift and secure sharing of patient records across primary care during the covid-19 pandemic. It means that the GP Connect1 system, currently used by some practices to share records on a voluntary basis, will be switched on at all practices until the pandemic is over. In addition, extra information including significant medical history, reason for medication, and immunisations will be added to patients’ summary care records and made available to a wider group of healthcare professionals. Usually, individuals must opt in but following the changes only people who have opted out will be excluded. Read full story Source: The BMJ, 27 April 2020
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News Article
Coronavirus spread has ‘kicked NHS forward in adopting digital solutions’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The rapid spread of coronavirus has given the NHS a “kick forward” in the need to accelerate technology and ensure staff are digitally prepared, a GP has said. Neil Paul, a Digital Health columnist and GP in Ashfields, said the need to reduce face-to-face appointments to prevent the potential transmission of Covid-19 has forced the NHS, particularly in primary care, to adopt already available technologies. He said practices “still in the stone ages” and “technophobes” were less prepared for the current situation, but that it would force them to move into the digital age. “It’s absolutely made my surgery go ‘right, how do we do online consults’. I think it actually has given people a real kick forward,” he told Digital Health News. “I think in six months’ time my surgery might be very different in that actually we will be doing a lot of online and telephone consults where previously we may have been a bit reluctant." GP practices across the country have been advised to assess patients online or via telephone and video appointments to mitigate the potential spread of coronavirus. In a letter to GPs last week, NHS England urged Britain’s 7,000 GP surgeries to reduce face-to-face appoints for patients displaying symptoms of Covid-19. The preemptive move means millions of patients will now be triaged online, via telephone or video and contacted via text messaging services. Read full story Source: Digital Health News, 13 March 2020 -
News Article
Coronavirus: UK patients face 'random' tests to check spread
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Tests for coronavirus are being increased to include people displaying flu-like symptoms at 11 hospitals and 100 GP surgeries across the UK. The tests will provide an "early warning" if the virus is spreading, Public Health England Medical Director Prof Paul Cosford said. Up to now, people were tested only if they displayed symptoms having recently returned from one of the countries where there has been an outbreak, including China, South Korea and northern Italy. However, Prof Cosford said Public Health England was now working with hospitals and GP surgeries to conduct "random" tests. These will target some patients with coughs, fevers or shortness of breath, regardless of whether they have travelled to a place where the virus is spreading. "If we do get to the position of a more widespread infection across the country, then it will give us early warning that's happening," said Prof Cosford. Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 February 2020 -
News Article
GP shortages cause 'unacceptable' patient waits
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Family doctors are under intense pressure and general practice is running on empty, warns the Royal College of GPs (RCGP). It says severe staff shortages are causing "unacceptable" delays for patients in England. In a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, its chairman says ministers must take urgent action to deal with the lack of GPs. The government said it had recruited a "record number" of GP trainees. Ministers are committed to recruiting 6,000 more GPs in England by 2025. Prof Martin Marshall, who took over as RCGP chairman in November, says GPs are struggling with an escalating workload, which is causing many to burn out and leave the profession. Dr Andrew Dharman, who works at the The Avenue surgery in Ealing, said the stress has got worse because of the enormous workload placed on GPs. He said: "Sometimes it feels like you're drowning. You know you're trying to stay afloat and on top of all the workload. And you're trying to make sure you're providing the kind of care that you envisage when you go to medical school." "You feel frustrated sometimes that you can't necessarily do that because of the amount of work and patients." Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 January 2020 -
Content ArticleQuality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) might be back this month – but for practices the work never went away, practices managers have told Management in Practice. NHS England announced the resumption of the payments system last December after QOF was part-suspended in 2021/22 to free up time for Covid vaccinations. But while the QOF system was on hold, many practices have carried on with QOF targets throughout the pandemic, continuing to measure their performance against these indicators.. Now the programme has officially returned, despite concerns that the system does not take into account the significant impact of the pandemic on long-term conditions, and could financially penalise practices. Practice managers are, once again, having to get to grips with targets, and needing to organise appointments for patients most in need of a face-to-face review, while dealing with day-to-day work pressures and staff shortages. Here practice managers share their thoughts on the comeback of QOF, what it will mean for them and their practices, and whether its return is too much, too soon.
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Content ArticleCOVID-19 has meant activity in general practice has changed dramatically over the last 2 years. Practices have moved rapidly towards remote triage and care delivery to reduce risk of infection. Many have also delivered a large proportion of the COVID-19 vaccination programme as part of Primary Care Networks (PCNs), alongside their usual patient care. Understanding the total workload of general practice is vital for planning, research and supporting practices under pressure. However, the data we have on activity in general practice are limited, especially compared with hospital data. This has made it challenging to accurately track the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on general practice. This short analysis from The Health Foundation uses data from different sources, some publicly available and some not, to explore recent trends in general practice activity in England. We also present data on the general practice workforce, to help contextualise activity levels. It highlights what the data can tell us – and importantly, what it can’t.
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Content ArticleGP practices are usually run separately from hospitals. In some places in England and Wales, the NHS organisations responsible for managing hospitals are now also running local GP practices. It is difficult in some areas for practices, which are small organisations, to recruit GPs and keep going. It is also desirable to coordinate GP services with hospital care. For these reasons, it may help if the organisations managing hospitals also run GP practices.
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Content Article
Binge Eating Disorder GP Leaflet
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Eating disorders
This leaflet from Beat Eating Disorders is designed for people with binge eating disorder to bring to a GP appointment, to help them get a quick referral from their GP to an eating disorders specialist. It has guidance for the person with binge eating disorder, and a tear-off section for the GP. -
Content ArticleThe General Practice: Health of the Nation report gives a unique overview of Australian general practice. The report reflects the experience of more than 1300 RACGP Fellows from across Australia, and incorporates information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Medicare, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and various government publications. The report provides information at a specific point in time and identifies longer-term trends across the general practice sector. The 2021 Health of the Nation report also highlights a number of critical issues affecting GPs and their patients, including: treatment of multimorbidities in general practice the increasing mental health burden on general practice restrictions to GP involvement in aged care barriers to the use of video telehealth services the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
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Content ArticleThis rapid response to the article 'What is a good doctor and how can we make one?', published on the BMJ website, discusses the background to the Biopsychosocial Model and it's implications in clinical practice today. The author highlights the importance of taking psychosocial factors into consideration, such as diet or loneliness, in order to improve individualised patient treatment.
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Content ArticleProviders led by GPs of an ethnic minority background have raised with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) concerns that they do not receive the same regulatory outcomes from CQC as providers led by GPs of a non-ethnic minority background. To investigate and respond to these concerns, CQC started a programme of work in February 2021. The focus of this has been on how CQC's regulatory approach affects ethnic minority-led GP practices and how it can improve its methods to address any inequalities identified.
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Content ArticleEven those at the top admit the NHS can’t do what is being asked of it today. But it is far from unsalvageable – we just need serious politicians who will commit to funding it, writes Gavin Francis, who shares his experience as a GP in this Guardian long read.
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Content ArticleThe Health and Social Care Select Committee report on the future of general practice examined the pressure currently facing general practice, highlighting the challenges being faced by general practice and provided clear recommendations to respond to them. This document sets out the Government’s reply to each of these recommendations.
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News Article
GP’s ethnicity ‘affects level of support they get’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A GP’s ethnicity has an impact on the level of leadership support it gets from regulators and external bodies, a new Care Quality Commission (CQC) report has suggested. In 2021, the CQC conducted research looking at concerns raised by some doctors that ethnic minority-led GP practices were “more likely to have a poorer experience or outcomes” from regulation. In a final report, the CQC has admitted ethnic minority-led practices are “not operating on a level playing field”, due to several factors including the fact they are more likely to care for populations with higher levels of socio-economic deprivation and poorer health. This can affect their ability to achieve some national targets used in assessments of quality, and increase challenges around recruitment and funding. The evidence gathered by the CQC also suggested that practices led by ethnic minority doctors “often lacked leadership support from other bodies and suffered from low morale”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 19 January 2022 -
News Article
Tory pledge to bolster GP surgery staff set to be broken, say health leaders
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A manifesto pledge to hire 26,000 extra health professionals to work in GP surgeries is set to be broken by the government, health leaders have warned, leaving family doctors straining under a heavier workload. About 9,500 of the promised physiotherapists, pharmacists, mental health therapists and other clinical staff so far have been recruited to help GPs and practice nurses. Senior doctors have warned that patients will pay the price for the slow delivery of extra personnel by facing persistently long waits for an appointment. The plan was to free up family doctors’ time by having physiotherapists see patients with sore backs, pharmacists undertaking medication reviews, counsellors supporting people with mental health problems and dieticians advising those with food-related problems. Those 26,000 staff, alongside the arrival of “6,000 more doctors in general practice” in a separate pledge, would help GPs and their teams offer 50m more consultations, the Conservatives said. But in November the health secretary, Sajid Javid, admitted that Johnson’s often-repeated 6,000 extra GPs pledge would be missed. “Whilst progress in meeting this target is better than the GP [recruitment] target, it’s still slow and very concerning that this could be another promise that won’t be met,” said Prof Matin Marshall, the chair of the RCGP. “The impact of not having enough staff in general practice is being felt acutely both by GPs and our team members who are working to their limits, and our patients, who are facing longer waits for the care they need. Meeting this [extra staff] target – and the GP target – will be vital to addressing this.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 January 2022 -
News Article
Covid: Doctors' leaders back postponed health checks
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Doctors' leaders have welcomed plans to allow GPs in England to defer some services to deliver Covid booster jabs instead. Practices can postpone minor surgery and routine health checks for over-75s and new patients until 31 March. All adults in England are expected to be offered boosters by the end of January in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant. A further 75 Omicron cases were confirmed in England on Friday. On Saturday the UK reported a further 42,848 cases of coronavirus and 127 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test while 372,557 booster jabs were administered on Friday. Dr Farah Jameel, the GP committee chair of the British Medical Association, said the new measures would release GPs from "filling out paperwork" and chasing unnecessary and often undeliverable targets. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have been struggling with significant prevailing workforce pressures - backlog pressures, winter pressures, pandemic pressures. "Whilst these changes make a difference and start to create some time, I think every single practice will have to look at just how much time it does release." Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 December 2021 -
News Article
CQC threatens to suspend licence of ‘large scale’ GP provider
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A major GP group in Plymouth covering tens of thousands of patients could have its licence removed after failing to make ‘substantial improvements’ ordered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). In August, the CQC rated the Mayflower Medical Group “inadequate” and last month the regulator said it had served a “letter of intent” on the group after another inspection. Such a letter is the last step the CQC takes before a provider’s licence is suspended. Licence suspension would affect around 40,000 people (a sixth of Plymouth’s population), who live in one of the highest areas of deprivation in the country – according to Public Health England (now the UK Health Security Agency). Among the CQC’s concerns were safety fears about the way medicines were prescribed, poor management of high-risk patients, coding issues, limited monitoring of the outcomes of care and treatment, and patients experiencing difficulties accessing care and treatment. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 2 December 2021 -
News Article
Unsupportive Government ‘indirectly puts GP patient lives at risk’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A lack of support for general practice is indirectly putting patient lives at risk, amid escalating abuse in GP practices, the England LMCs conference has heard. A debate around abuse saw 99% of conference delegates agree that ‘the abuse of primary care staff directly affects patient care and puts patient safety at risk’. And 98% agreed that ‘when Government and [NHS England] choose not to support NHS staff, they directly affect patient safety and knowingly put lives at risk’. The conference also voted to ‘demand that healthcare policy is decided based on high-quality evidence on population health, and not the whims of a handful of vitriolic media’, with the vote unanimous on the topic. Speaking in the debate, which focussed on GP abuse and wellbeing, Dr Abel Adegoke of Wirral LMC told delegates that the NHS "runs on the blood of GPs" He said: "About four weeks ago, my younger sister was being buried and I had to watch via Zoom because that was taking place in Nigeria – yet I was still seeing patients. That was the day I felt so sad about being a GP because despite that sacrifice, I was still abused by a patient who wanted to be seen urgently for an absolutely non-urgent condition." "We are being taken for granted." Read full story Source: Pulse, 30 November 2021 -
News ArticlePlans to scrap tens of millions of “unnecessary” hospital follow-up appointments could put patients at risk and add to the overload at GP surgeries, NHS leaders and doctors are warning. Health service leaders in England are finalising a radical plan under which hospital consultants will undertake far fewer outpatient appointments and instead perform more surgery to help cut the NHS backlog and long waits for care that many patients experience. The move is contained in the “elective recovery plan” which Sajid Javid, the health secretary, will unveil next week. It will contain what one NHS boss called “transformative ideas” to tackle the backlog. Thanks to Covid the waiting list has spiralled to a record 5.8 million people and Javid has warned that it could hit as many as 13 million. Under the plan patients who have spent time in hospital would be offered only one follow-up consultation in the year after their treatment rather than the two, three or four many get now. “While it is important that immediate action is taken to tackle the largest ever backlog of care these short-term proposals by the health secretary have the potential to present significant challenges for patients and seek to worsen health disparities across the country,” said Dr David Wrigley, the deputy chair of council at the British Medical Association. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 25 November 2021
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News Article
In-person GP appointments save lives and must return
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Last week a receptionist saved a patient’s life. She put him straight into a face-to-face appointment early in the day. The doctor saw him and sent him to A&E urgently. He was operated on the same day. Receptionists are are given an impossible task, to fit a large number of patients into a small number of slots, and they have to stay calm. When the slots run out – which sometimes happens by 9am – they then have to persuade one of the doctors, already at the end of their tether, to add any patient they are especially worried about to their list. So it’s not surprising that when during the early part of the pandemic demand for appointments dropped by 30%, some very stressed and overworked GPs found their lives were a lot nicer without patients. And now that appointment levels have finally (as of May 2021) gone back to normal levels, some are finding the demand very difficult to cope with. This could explain GPs’ persistence at keeping patients at arms length. Telephone consultations are less intense somehow, less tiring. Some GPs feel they can control the day better by using telephone consultations and only bringing in some patients. But patients are experiencing this persistent distancing as rejection. And these rejections are hurtful. Some people have held on to problems for six months or more and then finally felt free to book an appointment when the restrictions ended in August. Except the restrictions haven’t ended, not in general practice. GPs seem unable to let the remote triage go. GPs say: “We are seeing patients face-to-face. We’ve been seeing them throughout the pandemic,” which is true. But only some patients. Plenty of patients who would have benefitted from a face-to-face appointment or an examination have not been seen. Patients are not idiots. They know telephone consultations are not as good. They know, especially older patients, that proper doctoring involves an examination. They know that the rapport and connection with a doctor can only come from a face-to-face appointments. And they wish to book an appointment with their GP themselves, without facing multiple barriers. Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 November 2021 -
News Article
BMA urges GPs to move to 15-minute consultations and close patient list
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
The BMA has advised practices to immediately start offering consultations of 15 minutes or more; and apply to close their patient list, as part of the fightback against the Government’s new GP access plan. It set out a range of measures GPs should take to protect their staff and patients and ‘prioritise’ core work amid pressure to return to pre-pandemic ways of working. In an email bulletin sent to GPs on Friday, the BMA’s GP Committee said that practices ‘should not feel pressured to return to a traditional 10-minute treadmill of face-to-face consultations that are neither good for patients nor clinicians’. It said: ‘Instead, they should offer patients consultations that are 15 minutes or more [and] apply to close the practice list to focus on the needs of existing patients.’ Read full article here Original source: Pulse -
News Article
GPs to vote on industrial action over ‘name and shame’ reforms
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
GPs are set to be balloted on industrial action over controversial reforms proposed by health secretary Sajid Javid. The “outraged” doctors in England have voted unanimously to reject the government’s plans at a British Medical Association (BMA) meeting. The government wants to see GP surgeries ranked in league tables to “name and shame” those that do not carry out enough face-to-face appointments with their patients. From early November, GPs will have to have their names and wages published if they earn an NHS salary of more than £150,000. The BMA says that forcing GPs to publish their earnings “provides no benefit to patients or their care, yet will potentially increase acts of aggression towards GPs, will damage morale amongst the profession, and only worsen practices’ ability to recruit and retain GPs”. GP surgeries will not be eligible for new funding if they fail to provide an “appropriate” number of in-person consultations. Patients will also be asked to rate their GPs via text message. Mr Javid has insisted that his plans would improve patients’ access to primary care – but the union representing the GPs says it has been “left with no alternative” but to ballot over whether to take industrial action. Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 October 2021 -
News Article
Plan to boost face-to-face GP consultations
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
GPs in England are being told to see more patients face-to-face as ministers unveil a £250m winter rescue package. The emergency funding is being handed to GPs so they can recruit extra locum staff with an emphasis on providing more same-day appointments. Social distancing rules are also expected to be relaxed so that GPs can bring more people into their buildings. It comes amid mounting criticism about the fall in face-to-face appointments since the start of the pandemic. Only 58% of patients were seen face-to-face in August - the first full month following the ending of restrictions. That compares with 54% in January and more than 80% before the pandemic. Patients have also complained of long waits on phone lines to book an appointment. The £250m funding is part of the extra £5bn Covid fund announced last month to help the NHS through to the end of the year, and comes on top of the £12bn set aside for GP services this year. Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 October 2021
