Making Time in General Practice

Perhaps 27% of appointments might be avoided, so says Making Time In General Practice, which  summarises work carried out by the NHS Alliance and Primary Care Foundation during 2014/15 on reducing bureaucracy and shaping demand in general practice.    They estimate that 1 in 6 patients could be seen by someone else in the team whether clinical pharmacists, practice nurses or physician assistants, or by self-care.

The report,commissioned by NHS England, is based on a survey of general practices to identify where the burden of bureaucracy lies and identifies changes in contracting and monitoring that would reduce practice time spent on bureaucracy. It details an audit of GP appointments to understand how avoidable consultations with GPs arise and where they could have been better directed. It includes recommendations for improving the primary-secondary care interface developed jointly by senior clinicians and managers from both sectors. Finally, it concludes with a series of articles and thought leadership pieces commissioned in pulling this report together.

Making Time In General Practice, NHS Alliance and Primary Care Foundation, October 2015

Follow the subsequent work of NHS England around Reducing Pressure in General Practice.

The NHS Network Releasing Capacity in General Practice (10 High Impact Actions) includes a collection of useful events and resources.