The Royal College of General Practitioners is calling for all GPs who carry out practice-based dermatological surgery to record and upload their figures as part of a UK-wide information gathering project.
The ground-breaking audit will establish for the first time how many GPs are carrying out dermatological surgery, including the removal of skin cancers, pre-cancerous skin lesions, benign skin cysts, lipoma, and excision of 'small lumps and bumps'.
The Community- Based Surgery Audit (CBSA) national pilot is now open and detailed figures will be available for assessment by March 2015. The CBSA is a unique initiative from the RCGP in partnership with the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) - and will provide the first ever 'snapshot' of dermatological treatment responses in general practice across the UK.
The tailor-made system provides an opportunity for GPs to monitor and improve the quality of care they provide, including peer comparison reporting. It also allows GPs to collect data to support re-accreditation, appraisal, revalidation and local contracting.
The statistics, submitted by individual GP practices will then be used to compile a nationwide database. The RCGP hopes it will eventually become as successful as the College's surveillance of common illnesses such as flu and hayfever, in which 100 'spotter' GP practices across the country are used to predict and monitor outbreaks and epidemics.
Dr Imran Rafi, Chair of the RCGP Clinical Innovation and Research Centre said:
'It's almost a misnomer to refer to Practice-based surgery as 'minor' because the implications of this kind of work are often so significant. GPs are playing an increasingly important role in the diagnosis - and removal - of skin lesions.
"Patients trust their GP and many feel more comfortable having this type of treatment at their local practice, rather than going to hospital. It's vital that we establish how many of these procedures are taking place so that we can support more GPs to do this work - thereby reducing pressure on secondary care and specialist units."
Dr Jonathan Botting, Clinical Lead for Minor Surgery at the RCGP, said:
"The CBSA is an incredibly useful tool for all GPs- providing us with a broader picture of practice-based GP surgery trends and helping us to improve patient care. Although current UK guidelines recommend all melanomas and other high risk skin cancers seen in primary care should be referred immediately to secondary care, up to 20% of melanomas diagnosed in the UK have been first treated in primary care. Published evidence about the quality of such treatment has been conflicting.
"As the incidence of melanoma is doubling every 10 years the NHS needs to support suitably skilled GPs as part of an extended, community-based, surgical network.The potential cost savings to the NHS of community-based surgery is significant. Our hope is that the CBSA will demonstrate that GPs have both the diagnostic and surgical skills to carry out such procedures- allowing us to take a more pivotal role in life-saving skin cancer treatments."
For further information on the CBSA and to sign up please go to www.hscic.gov.uk/cbsa