New guidance on end of life care launched

New guidance for doctors comes into effect on 1 July 2010.
Treatment and Care Towards the End of Life: Good Practice in Decision Making replaces the booklet Withholding and Withdrawing Life-prolonging Treatments (2002). It expands on the guidance in Consent: Patients and Doctors Making Decisions Together, which sets out the principles on which good clinical decisions should be based, and provides a framework for good practice when providing treatment and care for patients who are reaching the end of their lives.

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Consultation on opening up choice of GP practice

A public consultation looking at how to give patients a greater choice over which GP practice they can register with has been launched by health secretary Andy Burnham. The consultation is seeking views on the various options for enabling patients to register with the GP practice that best meets their needs, whether that is a practice near their work, near their child's school or simply a different practice near their home that offers more services or longer opening hours. It also sets out the potential implications for their care when patients opt to register a long way from where they live.
The consultation is looking for responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including GPs, PCTs and patients, and will run until the end of May 2010.

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New guide for practice managers promotes access and responsiveness

A comprehensive guide is now available online for practice managers seeking new ways to improve access to and responsiveness of general practice. The DH-sponsored document is the result of collaboration by NHS Alliance, the British Medical Association, the National Association of Primary Care, the Institute for Healthcare Management, AMSPAR, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Family Doctor Association. An interactive version of the guide will be produced later in the year along with a revamped website. The existing site also includes a registration form for the practice managers' network, which has attracted more than 1,000 registrations since it went live earlier this year.

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GP Patient Survey Results

The results of the GP Patient Survey run between January and April 2009 have now been published.
In order to help with access to the results of the survey a separate website has been provided for the results to be shown online.
The GP Patient Survey Results website is designed to help people find additional information about the GP Patient Survey and view the final results of the survey run between January and April 2009. It also has links to data published from previous waves of the survey.
To access this website please click here.

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Seven steps to patient safety in general practice

The Seven steps to patient safety in general practice describes the key steps for a general practice to take to avoid harming the patients they care for. This guide is based on the full reference document, Seven steps to patient safety in primary care, and adapted specifically for general practice. Alongside each step is a set of activities that can be taken to develop policies, strategies and action plans. There are also practical hints and techniques that can be used to promote quality care. Click here to view the guide!

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Active Medicine - A case study

Active Medicine was designed to educate and support patients, inform healthcare professionals
and act as a shared care resource during consultations.
The technology behind the project was developed by Dr Howard Last and Dr Stewart Manning after GPs at Oakley Medical practice noticed poor asthma technique in the local area. Many patients failed to turn up for appointments and communication between different healthcare professionals was in need of improvement.The software provides inhaler videos and information about asthma for the patient, while the healthcare professional has access to guidelines and the patient’s previous notes and actions. This helps generate a personalised action plan for the patient who can then access this again, online.
Click here for more information. *
Acitve Medicine & Oakley Medical Practice has been shortlisted for the Health & Social Care Awards and a short film will be produced for the ceremony taking place on 28th May 2009 at Sheffield City Hall.

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2009 GP Patient Survey - Supporting Guidance

The Department of Health has released the supporting guidance for this year's GP patient survey, the 2009 survey will seek the views of more than 5 million patients. As well as confirming details of the new survey, information is also given on how the data is used to assess payments to GP practices under QOF. PCTs are encouraged to read the guidance and discuss how they will ensure the data is used to ensure timely QOF achievement payments.

Practical Advice to help Family Doctors Support Carers

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and the RCGP have teamed up to launch a self-assessment toolkit for Primary Care Teams. It is designed to help them pool knowledge/skills and build on existing good practice; put in place systems for identifying carers at the earliest possible stage; and share good practice with colleagues nationally. It comprises chapters on developing an action plan; case studies; and sources of further information.

GP Patient Survey 2008 - Results Publication

The results of the GP Patient Survey are available for both PCTs and patients to view, via the NHS Information Centre. The site also provides a downloadable A5 leaflet and A4 poster developed to support public awareness and provide feedback of the national results.

The Working in Partnership Programme (WiPP) Resources

WiPP was launched in 2004 under the new General Medical Services (nGMS) to support general practice with capacity-building resources and strategies. It completes its programme of work on 30th June. Reports on completed pieces of work will be available via http://www.wipp.nhs.uk until March 2009. Many of its resources are moving to new permanent homes where they remain live and freely available: General Practice Nursing (GPN) and Health Care Assistants (HCA) projects are moving to the Royal College of Nursing http://www.rcn.org.uk The self care resources and courses will be maintained and developed by the Expert Patients Programme (EPP) and can now be found at http://www.selfcareconnect.co.uk The Workload Analysis Tool continues its programme of work.

New Publications on Primary Care for BME patients

The 2007 GP Patient Survey highlighted significant variations between GP practices in levels of patient satisfaction, together with lower satisfaction rates for people from some BME groups. The Report of the National Improvement Team for Primary Care Access and Responsiveness focuses on the variation in patient satisfaction between practices; and No patient left behind: how can we ensure world class primary care for black and ethnic minority people? looks specifically at the reasons for lower satisfaction among patients from some BME communities.

Practitioners with Special Interests - Specialty Frameworks

Of the 18 speciality frameworks, several are now in the final stages of development with sign off from the DH awaited. PCTs are now starting to formalise their accreditation processes and are being signposted to the document "Implementing care closer to home: Convenient quality care for patients - Part 3: The accreditation of GPs and Pharmacists with Special Interests". To find out more, click here. Two launch events (Leeds and London) for all of the frameworks are scheduled for September 2008, with the aim of getting all frameworks signed off by June 2008. In terms of accreditation (all Practitioners with Special Interests require accreditation by March 2009 in line with the published guidance)