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----- Original Message ----- From: "Mcdaid,D" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 12:01 AM Subject: Audit Commission Report: A focus on General Practice In England Dear Colleagues The Audit Commission have just produced a new report on state of GP practice in England. Among other things the report talks about varaiations in the availability and quality of GP services. I have below attached some brief information on the report. For those of you interested the full report can be accessed on-line at http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/publications/genprac.shtml Best Wishes David McDaid LSE Health and Social Care General practice is a well-used and valued public service. Eight out of ten people visit their general practitioner (GP) every year and 99 per cent of the population are registered with a GP. The service costs £8.2 billion (including prescribed drugs) - one-fifth of NHS spend. There are many pressures on general practice... * as medical science advances, more can be done for patients locally, with treatments becoming more complex - but the average time available for consultations is under ten minutes * there are new national standards, and new arrangements to hold practitioners to account for achieving them * one in three staff are near retirement age and more are working part-time - but the numbers joining general practice have not risen to keep pace with these changes ... and not all patients have the same level and quality of service. * the amount spent per person varies greatly across the country - Oxfordshire has twice as many GPs as South Derbyshire * nearly one in ten premises fail basic standards, such as having sinks in treatment rooms, and more of these are in inner city areas * one in five patients in inner cities have to wait three or more days to see a GP, compared with one in eight overall * there are wide variations in the quality of service between practices and two-fold variation in spend on drugs, after adjusting for age * younger people are less satisfied with current services - one in four want to be seen more quickly by their GP National policy changes are driving improvements ... * new rules mean that, in future, money for general practice will follow patient need rather than doctors' investment decisions * the proposed new GP contract and other changes will give primary care trusts (PCTs) greater powers to shape general practice against national standards ...and practices are modernising themselves. * practices have changed the way that they organise home visits and out-of-hours services to manage their workload better, and practices are getting bigger * practices in the Primary Care Collaborative are redesigning the way that they work, more than halving the time that patients wait to see a GP, often by using nurses more effectively These changes need to be managed carefully to retain the best features of traditional general practice: local and well-understood services offering continuity of care. Some practices need to be better managed to provide better care for their patients. The Audit Commission will be working with PCTs to provide information to help them to shape and support general practice in the future.