Today, the Health and Social Care Committee heard from expert witnesses focusing on the the future of General Practice and continuity of care from GPs.
Lucy was particularly interested to hear from Norwegian Professor Dr Steiner Hunskår, who set out how continuity of care for patients was introduced in Norway. Not only did patients have better health outcomes, but GP access was improved as each appointment was more effectively used, because GPs had the full history and knowledge of their patients, and in turn patients had more trust in their GP.
The Committee heard that building a relationship between a GP and their patients also helps to improve GP morale, as they are able to focus on individualised patient care, leading to improved staff retention.
Lucy raised the issue of super practices like Teldoc, where the patient list is so large that patients were dispersed to which ever practice had a slot. She queried whether continuity of care was viable in such super practices and was informed that the model can work in the largest practices, improving access and reducing A&E admissions.
Lucy Allan MP said:
At the moment, access to GPs is so challenging that the focus is on trying to deliver as many appointments as possible.
That doesn’t tackle the cause of the access problem.
The evidence shows that where patients can see the same doctor they need fewer appointments, have better health outcomes and better preventative care.
Access and continuity of care are not mutually exclusive and we need to work to deliver both. I hope the Committee’s work in this area will help achieve this nationally.”
You can watch the committee session here.
