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GPs want to scrap Friends and Family Test and NHS Choices reviews

The BMA’s GP Committee has been told to lobby for the end of the Friends and Family Test, as well as practice reviews posted by patients on NHS Choices.

The motion, passed at tofay’s England LMCs Conference, said ‘trivial complaints’ couod be ‘taken out of the system, as the practice time and resources they consume are disproportionate’.

Dr Lee Salked, from Avon LMC, proposed the motion arguing that CQC is suffient ‘in-depth’ and ‘unbiased’ regulation of GP practices.

He argued that the other ‘reporting mechanisms’ paid ‘no attention to the dire challenges facing general practice to provide the access and quality of care that we aspire to’.

‘So, let’s ditch all the other feedback mechanisms and focus on delivering high quality care rather than defending ourselves against the self-interest of a very small number of patients,’ he said.

Speaking against the motion, Mike Ingram from Hertfordshire LMC suggested GPs could ‘harness NHS Choices’ by focusing on the positives.

He said: ‘We have tried to do that as a practice. Every positive review, every compliment boosts the morale of GPs, nurses but particularly that of practice staff who were often seeing that praise reflected for the work they do.’

Motion in full

AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY AVON:

That conference deplores the over-regulation of general practice and it calls upon GPC England to lobby government to:

(i)             abolish the NHS Choices reporting system

(ii)            abolish the Friends and Family test reporting system

(iii)           review the current procedure for GP complaints so that trivial complaints can be taken out of the system, as the practice time and resources they consume are disproportionate