24 March 2011
GPs must work more closely with patients to ‘navigate’ them through the health service, using a wider range of more accurate data to do so, according to the King’s Fund.
The health think-tank’s report concluded that more consistent, high-quality work from GPs could save the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds in prescribing and hospital costs. It urged GPs to take responsibility for improving quality, with a stronger commitment to transparency, more peer review, and better use of data and IT to monitor performance.The team producing the report, headed by former Healthcare Commission chair Sir Ian Kennedy, did not consider GPs’ new commissioning role in any detail. But the team warned that the changing nature of health care meant that GPs should move towards ‘federated’ networks of practices; move from being NHS ‘gatekeepers’ to ‘navigators’ by signposting patients to services both within and without the NHS; and play a more active role in promoting good public health.
The report also highlighted a wide variation in GP quality, in referral rates, hospital admissions and prescribing, which it said must be tackled to save the NHS money.
King’s Fund chief executive Chris Ham said: ‘While many practices have been at the vanguard of innovation and quality improvement, too many GPs remain unaware of significant variations in performance and do not give priority to improving quality.’
Laurence Buckman, chair of the British Medical Association’s GPs committee, said: ‘A culture of self-scrutiny has existed for many years but now more than ever, given the increased intensity and complexity of general practice work, GPs need time off the treadmill so they can look critically at what they do and make improvements.’
