General Practice Access Short Life Working Group: access principles

7. Ongoing work

Focussing on the 5 steps (section 4c) of a person’s journey to access the care they need may help General Practices to consider what changes they could make that could have a significant positive impact on a person’s access experience.

Patients Journey - General Practice Access Journey

General Practice

1. People understand if they have a healthcare need

2. People know how to seek care when they need it

3. People can be care navigated to the most appropriate person or service for theis needs

4. People can be seen in a timely way

5. People will have all the needs addressed with prevention included

People

1. I understand when I should manage my own care and I should seek healthcare

2. I know how I can access my General Practice and other services to receive the Right Care when I need it

3. I know I will see the Right Person for healthcare need I have

4. I will see some at the right time for my healthcare need

5. When appropriate I will get support to improve my own health and wellbeing

*Graphic demonstrates the journey for General Practice to delivering good access to Primary Care and for people. These are aligned to demonstrate the 2 perspectives for each consideration. People and patients both understand when they have a healthcare need and when to seek advice on this. There is awareness of how patients can access the care they need and be seen by the right person for this need; They will be assessed in a timescale that is appropriate for the healthcare need and their needs will be addressed and supported, including preventative measures (where appropriate)

A number of national initiatives to support and improve access in General Practice are already in progress or planned. Some programmes span more than one of the five steps and all have the aim of achieving ‘better access’ underpinned by the Access Principles. This work includes but is not limited to the following:

1. Continuation of Scotland’s HIS Primary Care Access Programme (PCAP) which has been developed and rolled out since August 2022. Approx 100 practices to date have participated or are participating in this improvement work over a seven week ‘sprint’ to improve access in their practice. Cohort 4 is now complete with Cohort 5 planned for the Autumn.

2. Sharing of case studies, good practice examples and other resources developed with practices who have participated in PCAP/associated relevant Access improvement programmes (HIS).

3. The Developing General Practice Managers and Administrative Staff roles group has worked collaboratively with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to develop a Core Competency Framework for general practice staff^[30]. The framework was published by NES in September 2023. Part of this work includes prioritising the development of a number of training programmes and modules for practice administrative staff by NES. This work will begin with Communication Skills and Care Navigation. The first of these resources will be available for practices in Autumn 2023.

4. With the switch from analogue to cloud-based telephony systems in 2025, Practice Telephony Guidance is being developed by Scottish Government to support general practices improve their communication systems, while at the same time ensure they are fit for the future and meet the needs of the public.

5. Continued rollout by Scottish Government and HSCPs of the Primary Care Improvement Programme (PCIP) to recruit and embed the MDT in primary care.

6. Funding has recently been made available to HSCPs to support the reintroduction of protected learning time (PLT)^[31] to support team training and development in General Practice. Improving Access is one area which General Practices could consider during their PLT.

7. NES and Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) are working together to improve processes for learning from peoples’ feedback and the management of complaints in General Practice.

8. Remote solutions for monitoring of long-term condition such as high blood pressure as well as the ongoing work for NearMe (video consultations) for remote consultations continues to be spread across Scotland.

9. Supporting the introduction of group consultations in primary and secondary care settings.

10. Further development of GP.scot to improve communication between General Practices and the public through General Practice websites.

11. Support to maximise the use of digital technology including online appointment booking, prescriptions ordering, online reviews where appropriate and Digital Asynchronous Consulting (DACs).

12. Other national initiatives include the Scottish Government’s ‘Inclusion Health Action in General Practice’ project which is providing funding and resources to General Practices in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to help them address barriers to accessing and engaging with primary care that are associated with health inequalities. Learning from evaluation will be shared by the Scottish Government to help develop and enhance services in other areas.

13. Primary Care – In-hours General Practice Activity Visualisation^[32] is now published by PHS to evidence the volume of overall work done across General Practices in Scotland. A Practice based activity dashboard is currently being rolled out by Public Health Scotland (PHS) to practices across Scotland to give them real-time activity data.

14. On-going public messaging to support people’s understanding of how the healthcare system works, including General Practice and the expansion of the MDT. Further promotion of NHS Inform^[33], Pharmacy First^[34] and other services as the first port of call for healthcare advice before contacting General Practice.