The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has responded to the recent report Intelligent Practice – understanding the information needs of GP commissioners, produced by an independent steering group of experts from the NHS.
Professor Mayur Lakhani, RCGP Chairman, stated: “The RCGP welcomes the report’s recommendations for an improved information framework, which will support GPs in making their commissioning decisions. Family doctors need to build up a more comprehensive picture of the health needs of their patients in order to commission services effectively.
“The key to good commissioning is accurate, timely information and the capacity and capability to interpret it. There is huge potential for practices to use data to improve patient care but GPs and practices are overwhelmed with information and need support and a framework for making sense of it.
“We urge primary care trusts to improve and simplify data packages, making them real-time and relevant for GPs.”
