Comment on the General Practice Forward View

Dr Rebecca Rosen welcomes the General Practice Forward View published by NHS England today.

Press release

Published: 21/04/2016

Commenting on the General Practice Forward View published by NHS England on 21st April, Dr Rebecca Rosen, Senior Fellow at the Nuffield Trust, said:

We welcome the wide-ranging support measures for general practice announced in the GP Forward View. They address the main pressures we know to be affecting general practice, and in combination they will provide a range of much-needed support to this essential part of the NHS.Dr Rebecca Rosen, Senior Fellow, Nuffield Trust

“We welcome the wide-ranging support measures for general practice announced in the GP Forward View.

“They address the main pressures we know to be affecting general practice, and in combination they will provide a range of much-needed support to this essential part of the NHS. The package is ambitious and while some elements can be implemented quickly, other parts will require a sustained effort if they are to help practices to continue delivering care.

“The investment in new roles such as pharmacists and in more practice nurses will help to strengthen clinical teams and free up GPs to work with the most complex patients. However, introducing new roles will require support and mentoring from senior clinicians so we need to be realistic about the time frame over which they start to relieve the pressure in practices.

“Alongside measures to support the day-to-day work of general practice, the General Practice Forward View also seeks to tackle the growing dysfunction at the interface between hospitals and practices that too often leaves patients struggling to obtain medicines and hospital appointments as they ping-pong between services.

“We welcome initiatives to stop the transfer of inappropriate work from hospitals to GP practices, which will benefit patients and reduce paperwork for GPs. We also support plans to develop better links between GPs and specialists to reduce the need for patients to attend outpatient clinics. Here too though, it will take time out of busy clinics to restore the working relationships between GPs and hospital doctors, so the system should be realistic about the timeframe over which this will deliver benefits”.

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