NHS managers are carrying out a review of practice workloads to try to develop ‘practical tools’ to help reduce the ‘mountain’ of ‘inappropriate’ workload for GPs, health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced this morning.
Mr Hunt said he had commissioned NHS England to carry out the review in order to cut paperwork and free up GPs’ time for patients.
He said the Government ‘cannot change the growing numbers of older people who need your help’ or ‘consumer expectations of healthcare provision’, but could ‘do something about the bureaucracy, paperwork and inappropriate workload that takes up too much of your time’.
Mr Hunt said that while he had ‘already cut QOF by one third’ and reduced reporting on enhanced services, he acknowledged ‘more needs to be done’.
He said NHS England had already surveyed more than 200 practice managers and GPs and would be reporting results of the review this autumn.
He added: ‘They will also be developing practical tools to help GPs to better manage the mountain of bureaucracy and paperwork that leads to so much frustration and burn-out and I have asked to see the results of that work this autumn.’
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