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GP II Project

The second GP project was undertaken jointly with the Department of Health in 2001/02 and continues work set out in the initial GP project published in March 01.

Key objectives

• To consider new regulations and processes impacting on GPs’ time and to ensure that new demands were not excessive or burdensome;
• To identify, research and prioritise new issues raised by GPs as overly bureaucratic;
• To challenge rigorously why such paperwork and processes are required and explore alternative options ;
• To assess the implications of their removal or amendment; and;
• To agree and implement action with appropriate departments or agencies to make practical changes to reduce the burden on front-line staff, namely General Practitioners.

Identifying and understanding the issues
Through the series of face-to-face interviews with GPs during the initial project phase, in excess of 100 issues were identified as being burdensome and creating a large amount of unnecessary paperwork. Thirty-six of these issues were tackled in the first project and agreements or commitments were made by departments and agencies to implement them. Subsequently, the remaining issues became the focus for the second project in addition to other burdens identified by GPs through continual correspondence with the Public Sector Team.

To ensure that the Team had consistent specialist advice throughout the project, the GP Advisory Panel, established for the initial project, was retained. Links were maintained with doctors who contacted the Team via correspondence as an avenue for further advice and information. In addition to this qualitative work, an experienced medical professional was seconded on a part-time basis to work with the Project Team.

Initiating and obtaining commitments to address the issues raised
As with the first project, negotiations with key stakeholders followed the analysis of identified burdens. The PST worked collaboratively with the Department of Health to explore possible solutions, and to broker a commitment to reduce or remove unnecessary burdens on GPs.

Making a Difference
‘ Making a Difference: Reducing Burdens on General Practitioners (GPs) – Second Report’ was published in June 2002. This considers six main subject areas:

• Medicines Management
• Children
• Disability and Benefits
• Interface with Departments and Agencies
• Hospital and GP Interface

Fifteen significant new outcomes around the above areas have been identified in the report. In addition, four areas from the first report have been revisited and revised in detail to ensure implementation is effective.

Estimations, based on advice from practising GPs, suggest that should all the new outcomes be fully implemented from this second report, the potential annual savings will amount to:

• 3.2 million appointments freed;
• 2.7 million additional hours saved; and
• Up to a further 80,000 requests for medical information removed.

Cumulatively, this means that potentially, the total annual savings from both the first and second report will amount to:

• 10.3 million appointments freed;
• 3.4 additional hours saved; and
• Up to 80,000 additional requests for medical information removed.