GPs Are Still Providing Top Quality Care For Their Patients, UK

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 29 Sep 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Family doctors in England's GP practices have once again demonstrated high standards of patient care in the national system that measures the quality of services they provide. Latest figures for the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) published yesterday show general practice teams in England achieved 95.5% of the points available.

The Quality and Outcomes Framework was introduced in April 2004 as part of the new national GP contract. It offers practices up to 1000 points if they deliver on a range of services1. These points attract financial resources into the practice. Many of the points relate to evidence-based clinical interventions proved to benefit patients with illnesses such as asthma, diabetes and other long-term conditions: others are linked to the organisation and to patients' experience of the practice.

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's General Practitioners Committee, said:

"Once again GPs in England and their staff have proved how hard they are working to achieve these targets and by doing so they are improving the lives of their patients. If you look at the points available for the clinical work the results show that on average practices achieved over 96% of the points available2. It has already been predicted that more than 9,500 heart related problems, including heart attacks and strokes, will be prevented over the next five years largely because of the Quality and Outcomes Framework. That's work that will save many thousands of lives, it will prevent the misery of illness and it will save the NHS money.

"There have been significant revisions to the QOF this year, which introduced new work for GPs that made it significantly harder for practices to achieve maximum points. However GPs and their teams have yet again risen to the challenge, this year improving care to patients with depression, dementia and chronic kidney disease. It is further proof of how dedicated they are to improving patient care and how hard GPs and their staff are working.

"The government should be celebrating what has and will be achieved because of the QOF element of the GP contract. As doctors we are always willing to look at new ways of working if it will improve the lives of our patients and we have proved time and time again that we are able to adapt to change. In return we expect the government to talk to us about the changes they want to make and to recognise the value of the incredible hard work doctors and their teams are doing now."

1 The QOF was revised from the start of the 2006/2007 financial year to include new clinical areas and changing some clinical indicators. This year's QOF now allows a possible maximum score of 1,000 points. The previous maximum had been 1050 points.

2 The QOF is made up of four different components: The average points achieved for the clinical domain were 96.3%. The averages for the other domains were: organisational domain 92.5%, patient experience 95.9% and additional services 96.5%. Details of the QOF results are published by the Department of Health.

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