In brief
- Improving the quality of health services is a key priority for the NHS. Despite the introduction of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) that has provided incentives to general practice to improve the quality of patient care, the majority of the focus on quality has been concentrated on hospital services rather than general practice.
- To fill this gap The King’s Fund is running an 18-month inquiry into the quality of general practice in England. Launched in April 2009, the inquiry will collect and examine evidence on the quality of care and services provided by GPs and other health professionals working in general practice. It will examine a number of key areas, including patients' access to care, the quality of diagnosis and referral, and how patients with long-term conditions are cared for. What distinguishes this inquiry is not only that it focuses on the quality of care provision from the perspective of the patient but also that it is targeted at improving professional practice to achieve good quality care.
- The King's Fund is conducting a survey to capture opinions on the extent to which general practice is currently providing high-quality patient care and reactions to current approaches to quality improvement in general practice.
- As there remains an absence of standard measures for some of the core general practice activities, such as diagnosing illness, referring patients to specialists and handing out prescriptions, the inquiry will produce a set of measures that can be used to compare and assess the quality of patient care in different practices. Its ambition is to help GPs and others judge the quality of what is being provided and, ultimately, support professionals to drive up standards.
- Ten research projects and six discussion papers have been commissioned to explore quality in general practice as part of the first phase of the inquiry. In each area the inquiry will examine what high quality care looks like, define the role of GPs and general practice in the delivery of that care, and recommend how it should be measured.
- A major feature of the inquiry will be about engaging with front-line practitioners – we are committed to testing out our findings with clinical staff to make sure what we are saying is helpful and effective. We will host a series of events and surveys, from September 2009 to March 2010, to ensure the views of professionals inform the final report and the development of quality measures. Should you wish to be involved please email gpinquiry@kingsfund.org.uk
- The inquiry, which will report in late 2010, will be overseen by an expert panel consisting of leading figures within general practice under the chairmanship of Sir Ian Kennedy.
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