General Practice Access Short Life Working Group: access principles

6. The Final Principles

Following the work described above involving key stakeholders and the engagement with the public through the HIS Community Engagement Team, we have agreed the following four high level overarching main principles, and ten more detailed supplementary principles.

1. Access to General Practice is inclusive and equitable for people, based on the principles of Realistic Medicine and Value Based Health & Care, Care will be person-centred and based on what matters to the individual.

2. People should have a reasonable choice about how they access services.

3. Services should be approachable, sensitive, compassionate, and considerate to need.

4. General Practices should help people to get the right care from the best and most appropriate person or team to care for them (Right Care, Right Place, Right Time).

Supplementary Principles

a) People should be enabled and supported to maximise their own health and wellbeing through:

• Self-management of their condition
• Using online resources such as NHS Inform^[27]
• Accessing other primary care services where these are suitable such as their local Community Pharmacy, Optometry (Opticians) or Dentists

b) When capacity and appointment availability is limited General Practices’ should ensure that those with the most urgent care needs are met.

c) Methods of access to General Practices teams should be clear, understandable, and transparent for people to access the right service for their needs.

d) The role of trained practice administrative staff (receptionists) to help people find the most appropriate service (both within and out with the practice) to meet the person’s needs, is the norm (sometimes called Signposting or Care Navigation). More Information about Care Navigation is available from Care Navigation Toolkit – Care Navigation Toolkit (ihub.scot)^[28]

e) Receiving care from the wider General Practice team (other than the GP) is the norm (sometime called the multi-disciplinary team (MDT)).

f) People should be able to understand and trust the different roles in General Practice and wider MDT team and that they won’t always need to see a GP (doctor)

g) People who have complex health needs or who live with frailty should be supported to receive continuity of care through a known and trusted healthcare professional or team (more information on continuity of care is available from the Royal College of General Practitioners^[29]).

h) General Practice should be delivering holistic healthcare (the treatment of the whole person), considering psychological and social determinants of health, rather than just the symptoms of illness.

i) People should have a positive and trusting relationship with their General Practice team. Practices should actively seek, welcome, learn and act upon feedback (formal and informal) from people about their experience of accessing care.

j) General Practices will use digital resources (Information Technology), where appropriate and when people choose, to meet people’s needs. The needs of people who struggle with digital technology will also be considered and addressed by General Practices.