GP practices urged to share IT experiences

GP representatives want GP practices to share their experiences of how they are using IT and making innovative use of communication technologies to improve services for patients.

Examples of services being looked for include use of the internet for repeat prescription ordering or appointment booking and communicating with patients.

The request is part of a consultation launched by the BMA’s General Practitioner Committee to discover how practices respond to patients’ expectations and what barriers practices encounter to prevent them making changes.

The consultation, ‘Developing general practice, listening to patients’, will run until 1 May and the GPC said it hoped the results would ultimately inform discussion with UK governments.

The GPC plans to consult as many national patient groups as possible about their expectations of general practice as well as asking GPs for examples of how they have improved patient services in their own practices.

Dr Laurence Buckman, GPC chairman, said: “We want to gather examples of good and innovative practice across all areas of service, such as how practices use telephony systems, their use of the internet for repeat prescription ordering or appointment booking, or how they have improved communication between practices and their patients. Ultimately we want to make sure general practice is as responsive to patients as it is possible to be.”

The GPC said improvements that it would like hear about included changes to practice telephone systems, use of telephone consultations, use of technology and barriers preventing greater use of technology in the practice, methods used to provide patients with up-to-date information and the benefits and drawbacks of repeat prescription ordering and appointment booking online.

The GPC is also encouraging practices to use the consultation period to find out their patients’ views of the services offered by the practice and to feedback the results of those discussions to the BMA.

Dr Buckman added: “This is an area where GPs and patients should be equal partners. Most practices are already very good at establishing what their patients need and provide a high-quality service, but improvements can always be made.”

He added: “With infinite resources it would be easy, but new funding is often constrained. There are, however, simple changes that can be made which can have a big impact on a patient’s experience.”

Following the consultation the GPC plans to gather comments and case studies together into a publication Developing general practice, listening to patients.

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Comments should be sent to listeningtopatients@bma.org.uk