Pulse to launch major report on GP access during Labour conference
Pulse and its publishers Cogora will launch a major report on GP access at an event during the Labour Party Conference next week.
The event, held in conjunction with Rebuild General Practice, will take place at a fringe event in Liverpool at 10am on Monday 29 September, and will be attended by MPs and primary care professional leaders.
The report has involved a survey of 2,000 primary care professionals; interviews with more than 100 general practice staff; and data analysis of more than 20 sets of NHS data on every practice in England.
It is hoped that the report will influence major GP contract negotiations in England.
The report looks at how GP access has become the major issue within health, and one of the biggest political imperatives in general, which has heaped pressure on GP practices.
It analyses the biggest issues for GP teams and patients around access, what policymakers have done and whether these initiatives have been successful.
The paper found that the majority of the measures around good access are predominantly depending on systemic issues, such as funding, recruitment, deprivation and patient demographics.
It concludes with a series of recommendations about what policymakers need to do to ensure better quality care for patients, and improve the working conditions of general practice staff.
The launch event is open to GPs and those working in healthcare or health policy. It will involve a panel discussion with Pulse editor-in-chief and report author Jaimie Kaffash, GPC England deputy chair Dr Samira Anane, GP and Stroud MP Dr Simon Opher, Londonwide LMCs CEO Dr Lisa Harrod-Rothwell and Re:State research manager and head of health Rosie Beacon.
If you would like to attend the event, you can register here.
Mr Kaffash said: ‘Access is the biggest issue for patients, politicians and general practice staff. Yet there are misunderstandings around what good access is, and the drivers for it. This report is focused on the people who deal with access every day – general practice staff. They understand patients’ frustrations, and they know the barriers to improving access. I hope that this report can help improve matters for general practice professionals and patients alike.’
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READERS' COMMENTS [5]
Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles
Wonderful that PULSE can advocate for Primary Care and lay bare the facts driving the disastrous DOH GP contract threatening the very fabric of General Practice
Mises and Hayek explained why a lack of marginal prices would lead to these outcomes in what came to be known as the socialist calculation debate.
This was 100 years ago.
And irrelevant to today and this situation…..Austrian school disciples put too much faith in markets and price/signals, and Pareto-optimised market equilibrium, which anyway do not apply to the public or “socialised” sector. Any failure in the NHS is one of politics rather than economics. Hayek’s disciples’ commitment to the free-market position has, over the last 40 years of rising real-world inequality, huge capital wealth increase (partly funded by austerity for the masses), shown them to be ideologically-motivated opportunists using poor and invalid mathematical modelling of the real and empirical world.
Neo-Keynesian thinking based on the principles of the great British pragmatist Maynard Keynes may turn out to be the wiser choice for us.
A small fee paid to the GP Practice for seeing a patient would dramatically improve access.
A small fee paid by Patients to book an appointment would significantly reduce demand.
Jaimie – I dare you to slip the word ‘ laggard’ into your discussion! Good luck to all