General practice managers are being asked to take part in a national review of how GPs manage urgent care.
The Department of Health has commissioned the Primary Care Foundation (PCF) to carry out the review, which will assess the current process for dealing with patient’s urgent care needs in five primary care trusts across the country.
The aim is to understand how practices manage same-day care, to identify best practice for the future, and to prepare a toolkit that will support its delivery.
Nationally, there has been an increasing focus on urgent and emergency care, but most attention has been given to diverting patients away from A&E and hospital care, rather than looking at how patients might be identified and treated earlier in general practice.
This project wants to look at how patients might be identified and treated earlier in general practice, and will explore what practical steps practices can take to improve care to patients and reduce pressure on the wider healthcare system.
Following the initial review, the PCF will identify 10 pilot practices to test out new ways of working, and identify what works best within general practice to improve same-day care.
