Monday 29 September 2014

Possible models of General Practice



Any number of organisations have looked at the possible models of General Practice in England (see below for some recent examples).  They have produced lots of glossy pages describing the issues and possible models.

So we thought we would produce a short list of the possible ways that a local community could get its GP service provided. In no particular order.

“The Status Quo”.  The partnership option.
Under the current circumstances, unless the government changes its attitude this is not a realistic option.

A Salaried service with GPs.
a)    Through Foundation Trust Hospital – Vertical integration.
b)    Through private companies i) groups of GPs, ii) multi-national companies iii) venture Funds etc.

A nurse led service
This would probably be with GPs as community specialists/consultants at a distance. (There would be no doctor as first point of contact, no legal right to a GP).

Walk In centres.
Patients would be triaged and referred onto the ‘appropriate’ Healthcare provider.

NHS111
All access to healthcare would be through NHS111 call centres

Federation
GP practices merge or federate to form a large organisation (Management & Admin merged to save money & probably staff used across all sites rather than based on a specific site).

Investment by Government
You never know it might happen. The government realises that the current system is the envy of the world and invests to support the development and innovation that has taken place over the last 30 years

I may look at the advantages and disadvantages of these options at a future date.

 Further reading

Nuffield Trust

RCGP

Kings Fund

NHS England A call to action