BP Newspaper Issue 8 v5 1-31 (lores) Aug. 2015 | Page 11

SCORECARDS
COULD BE USED TO PERFORMANCE
MANAGE GPS FEARS RCGP
Proposals for a new
set of scorecards for
each general practice,
announced as part of
Jeremey Hunt’s “New
Deal” for primary care,
could result in GPs facing
undeserved criticism,
Royal College of GPs
Chair Dr Maureen Baker
has warned.

The Department of Health has asked the
Health Foundation to conduct a review into
indicators on the quality of care offered
by GP practices in England. The review, to
be completed in September 2015, may
be used by the Government to develop a
scorecard of indicators for each GP practice
to be published on the MyNHS website.
The review is also considering whether
credible indicators are available by specific
population groups and the services
accessible to them. These groups include
people over 70, people with long-term
conditions, people with mental health
conditions, mothers and children and
people who are “generally well”.

Dr Nav Chana, National Association of
Primary Care Chairman, welcomed the
approach to reviewing outcomes around
patient groups. “But we wish to ensure that
these include an emphasis on outcomes
that matter to people including wellness,
prevention and self-care as well as those
related to illness,” he said.

Dr Baker said while current data and
metrics did not give a rounded view of
quality in general practice this data should
not be used for judgement but to help
clinicians learn how to improve care.

Dr Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive at the
Health Foundation, who will be leading
the review, said: “Improving quality of care
for patients unites all people working in
health care. Good data on quality is the
cornerstone to making improvements.”

“Our worry is that a GP scorecard will not
give a meaningful picture of the quality of
care provided in general practice. There is
also a risk that a scorecard might be used
to performance manage GP practices and
result in undeserved criticism of family

A Department of Health spokesperson
said: “We are committed to making the NHS
the safest healthcare system in the world
and getting the best outcomes for every
patient – having robust information on our
performance is key to achieving this.”

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doctors at a time when GPs and our
teams are under intense pressure. This
would simply serve to further demoralise
hardworking GPs at a time when we
are trying to make general practice an
attractive profession to future and existing
doctors.”

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