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The Department of Health has asked the Health Foundation to carry out a review into indicators on the quality of care offered by GP practices in England.
The independent health care charity’s review will bring in all key stakeholders, and aims to analyse the already extensive work done in this area, assess whether a meaningful set of indicators has been developed, and identify the way forward to cover any gaps.
Dr Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive at the Health Foundation, said: “Improving quality of care for patients unites all people working in health care. Good data on quality is the cornerstone to making improvements. We look forward to carrying out this stocktake with others, and assessing how indicators on the quality of primary care might be made better to support those in the NHS make the changes they can see are needed.”
Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt (pictured) announced the review in a speech in south London this week, saying it will assess if comparable indicators on the quality of primary care are sufficiently developed to be used to help practices improve quality.
It will also look at whether such indicators would help patients and carers gauge the
quality of care their GP practice provides and consider whether credible indicators are available by specific population groups and the services available to them.
These groups will be people over 70, people with long-term conditions, people with mental health conditions, mothers and children, and people who are ‘generally well’. The results of 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.