Access and the GP Contract 2014-15

Primary Care DivisionScottish Government

Access - why?

• Feed back from practices; ‘demand’, ‘workload’, effects on practitioners, staff and relationships with patients

• Patient Experience; survey and feed back to MSPs/SG

• Campaigns by Deep End, RCGP, BMA; workload, infrastructure and capacity

Access – what (benefits)?

• Benefits of maximising the use of the available resource should include;

• For patients; a tailored access system (involving them?), clarity on who needs to be seen/by whom/when?, awareness of capacity

• For practices; re-fresh of ‘demand’/capacity, staff roles, providing clarity on who needs to be seen/by whom/when?, an element of ‘control’?

Access – what (benefits)?

• Professional Groups (BMA/RCGP/Deep End)• Health Boards• Scottish Government

• All of the above receive information on demand/capacity – support for workload campaigns

• Assurance that current capacity is being maximised

Access – how?

• QS002(S). The practice will undertake a review of access, using the tool agreed between SG and SGPC and provide a practice action report of the findings to the NHS Board.

• Two parts; an assessment of demand/patient flow using recognised tools/methodologies; practices encouraged to involve patients in the process and share the contents of the reports

• Based on Productive General Practice ‘tried and tested’ tools and activities (little that is new)

Access – how (three steps)?

• Know your patients and practice; has your practice or practice population and or activity changed significantly since you last undertook this sort of exercise?

• Know how well you are doing; how well are you currently matching demand and capacity?

• Know what improvements to prioritise; knowing the results of the above, what would you change, and in what order?

Access - PAAR

• 10 questions; essentially a high level summary of what you learned from each tool, your reflections on the impact of, and implications for, your practice and patients, supporting your decisions on any changes

• Very practical; captures the outcomes from the ‘three steps’ and provides an ‘evidence base’ for change (or no change?)

Summary

• A recognition of the importance of Access; the workload (demand/capacity) issues in practice

• Expected benefits• The tool(s) – a walkthrough to follow• Any Questions?• ‘What's the minimum we need to do?’• ‘What if we are all ‘open access’?• What if we did this last year?