Patients receiving 'quality' GP care
Patients are receiving 'better' care from GPs
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Thursday, 28, Sep 2006 01:05
GPs practices in England have improved the quality of care they provide, a new study has found.
The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) was established in 2004 and awards surgeries points for specific aspects of clinical care, including how well the surgery is organised, the patient experience and extra services offered.
In 2004/5 an average of 959 points from a potential 1,050 were achieved.
However this has risen during the last year, with GPs surgeries achieving on average 1,011 (96 per cent) of the maximum points available.
813 of England's surgeries achieved the tops marks in 2005/6 in comparison to 222 practices which achieved this in 2004/5.
Welcoming the statistics, the chairman of the BMA's general practitioners' committee, Dr Hamish Meldrum, said: "This is great news for patients. More patients than ever before are being diagnosed promptly and getting the treatment they need."
He added: "Achieving such high scores is not easy. Practices have pulled out all the stops and worked extremely hard to get these results. In real terms it means a lot of patients have better health outlooks than ever before."
Dr Barbara Hakin, chair of NHS Employers' general medical services negotiating team, said: "We are really encouraged to see a continued improvement this year in the care that patients receive from their GP. This is only the second year of the QOF and results such as these reaffirm its importance in measuring the quality of service that patients are getting from their local practices.
"This data should also help practices to identify how they can continue to improve and tailor the services they provide to their patients locally," she added.