NHS alliance, Primary Care Foundation October 2015
- Based on a survey of General Practices and audit of GP appointments this report discusses the causes of bureaucracy in general practice, causes of potentially avoidable GP consultations and makes recommendations for improving the primary-secondary care interface.
- The report argues that perhaps 27% of GP appointments could potentially be avoided if there was more coordinated working between GPs and hospitals, wider use of other primary care staff, better use of technology to streamline administrative burdens, and wider system changes.
- The report finds that a significant amount of GP time could be freed up if family doctors were not having to spend time rearranging hospital appointments, and chasing up test results from local hospitals. This accounted for 4.5% of appointments in the study, an estimated 15 million appointments if repeated across England.
- The report also estimated 1 in 6 of the patients in the study could potentially have been seen by someone else in the wider primary care team, such as clinical pharmacists, practice nurses or physician assistants, or by being supported to meet their own health needs.
