Listening exercise shows support for central database

Support for the idea of a central NHS database and a desire for more ‘joined up’ social and health care have emerged from the first rounds of consultation on the future of primary care.

The health department is currently running a series of five consultation meetings around England, entitled ‘Your health, your say, your care’, ahead of the publication of its white paper on care outside hospital in December.

The results from the first two meetings, in Gateshead and Leicester, have now been published. In Leicester 60 people chosen to reflect the demographic profile of the area were asked to consider what works well and what works less well in community health and social services.

NHS Direct, walk-in centres and GP services were among the areas considered to work well while access to GPs, coordination of services and referral and the lack of a central database which meant patients had to answer the same questions repeatedly were among the items considered to work less well.

The majority thought the first priority should be to provide more services in the community rather than just in hospital while others thought it was important to provide joined up health and social care with a single needs assessment.

A total of 89 people attended the Gateshead meeting and highlighted their top three issues as access to services, information about services and continuity and coordination both within and between services.

A third meeting was held in London last week and the last of the regional meetings will be held in Plymouth on October 10. This will be followed up by a national event for 1000 invited participants on 29 October.

An online questionnaire www.nhs.uk/yoursay is also available for those who cannot attend any of the events but want to contribute to the consultation.

The consultation exercise has been criticised by the British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee as being too vague to give valuable answers.

The questions themselves were thought too broad and would not give respondents a sense of the implications of some of the options that were felt to be favoured by the health department such as walk-in centres and supersurgeries.

At its meeting last month the GPC decided that a briefing document should be prepared for local medical committees and GPs on the topic which can be passed on to patients about the consultation.

A BMA spokesman told EHI Primary Care that nothing had been sent out yet but that the BMA would be in contact with LMCs as well as submitting its own formal response to the consultation before the deadline of 4 November.