The Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund aims to extend access to general practice and primary care across the nine regions of England.
In doing so, it aims to tackle the problems faced by working people in booking a GP appointment at a time that is convenient to them and to extend access to unscheduled GP care in order to reduce demand for other, more costly unscheduled services such as minor injury units, urgent care centres and A&E.
This seminar examined the issues around this and sought to identify methods through which to understand, quantify and influence supply induced use of health services.
In June 2014, the Nuffield Trust published Meeting need or fuelling unnecessary demand? Understanding the impact of improved access to primary care; which drew on key themes discussed at this event, examining how far increased access to general practice and other primary care services will deal with unmet need, or whether these efforts may only serve to stimulate additional use of services that would not have otherwise occurred.
During the seminar delegates discussed the following issues:
- Measuring and monitoring supply induced demand
- Influencing patient help-seeking behaviour for minor and acute illness
- Modifying provider responses in order to modify supply induced use of services.