Although the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has now closed the Productive General Practice programme will continue to be supported by its successor body; NHS Improving Quality. The Productive General Practice programme is also fully supported by a number of accredited delivery partners whose contact details are available here.
This guide aims to help CCGs consider some key questions as they start on their Productive General Practice journey. Download the Leading the roll out of PGP - A guide for CCGs
Top Tips for Practice Managers
This document provides some useful tips for Practice Managers who are about to embark on the Productive General Practice programme, from how to effectively communicate and engage with colleagues in their practice, through to keeping track of progress made. Download the Productive General Practice - Top Tips for Practice Managers.pdf (280.14 KB)
We have recently upgraded our excel based web resources for Productive General Practice that are downloadable as part of the programme modules’ zip files. The list below shows all the tools that are available. Please check this list to ensure you are using the latest version.
Download the PGP web resources (updated 5th November 2013) list.
If you are ready to commence the Shaping Our Future Practice module then please get in touch with a member of our team so we can update you on any developments on 02476 475883 or email jo.dawson@nhsiq.nhs.uk
Shaping Our Future Practice module – why is this module different?
Rather than focusing on improvements in a specific area such as referrals or your back office, the Shaping Our Future Practice module guides the practice through a fundamental re-design of their approach to dealing with the demands on the practice. It helps the whole practice move towards a more proactive approach to care by understanding how much of the demand on the service is predictable and aligning the practice capacity to match this demand. At the heart of the module is the need for the practice to re-think the way they look at patient groups and to agree new ways of delivering care.
Each practice will develop their own decisions about how they want to shape a new way of working in their practice. The approach and steps have been tried in many places outside of healthcare. So this module provides a series of steps to work through, but is not prescriptive.
At the time of launching the Productive General Practice programme, this was the one module that practices were still working through. It became clear to us that this is an iterative process. Practices sensibly tend to take many months as their thinking evolves and new ideas and insights emerge. What is important is that each practice feels confident that these fundamental changes are right for their practice.
We are keen on understanding and sharing the experience and outcomes of practices implementing this module. Please let us know your experiences by contacting jo.dawson@nhsiq.nhs.uk
Productive General Practice: Releasing time
The Productive General Practice programme is designed to help general practice continue to deliver high quality care whilst meeting increasing levels of demand and diverse expectations.
It helps practices to put the patient, clinician and practice team at the centre of improvement to create a timely, appropriate and dependable response to patient needs. Implementing the programme will engage all staff in the practice in improving their work processes, making it possible to release time to invest in improving patient outcomes and staff wellbeing.
The programme provides a proven framework that is easy-to-use, practical, and flexibly designed to enable all staff to take a fresh look at the changing needs of patients and develop services that will improve safety and reliability, patient and carer experience, staff experience and productivity. The latest in the NHS Institute’s nationally and internationally renowned Productive Series, Productive General Practice has been co-designed and tested by GPs, practice managers, nurses, receptionists and patients, as well as improvement experts from industry. It was developed in partnership with NHS Scotland.
“The cumulative result of lots of small changes to processes, scheduling, patient liaison, or team working can make real improvements to staff morale and the quality of patient care.”
Dr Martyn Diaper, General Practitioner, Friars Gate Practice, Winchester
Benefits of the Productive General Practice
An overview film giving first-hand account of the benefits of the Productive General Practice.
By purchasing a licence and associated support package, you can access all of the modules from our catalogue. To read more detailed explanations about each of the modules within Productive General Pactice click on the titles within the image below, or use the menu to the right of this page.
Download a copy of A guide to Productive General Practice (1.14 MB).
Support packages NEW
As an individual practice there are a number of support package options available to you. The range of packages will ensure that you have choosen the level of support that is right for your practice and its particular circumstances. For more details download the Access to the programme and additional support - Individual practice V4
As a CCG that is looking to purchase the programme for a number of practices in your area, we have designed a specific package that will enable you to support your practices in their roll out. For more details download the Access to the programme and additional support - CCGs V4
We have carefully selected four delivery partners to support and guide you through the programme. These are:
KM&T
Shaping Health International
Xytal Health Management Limited.
All delivery partners involved in the support of Productive General Practice have been comprehensively trained and are supported by a rigorous quality assurance structure.
Productive General Practice will provide tools and methods to help practices to:
- streamline activities across the practice and eliminate waste, to enable them to add value and meet the increasing demands on time and capacity with the same resources
- create the right context for change to ensure that it is sustained
- measure how they are currently doing, to enable them understand where their biggest challenges are and focus their improvement efforts
- improve the quality of patient experience. The programme was developed with practising GPs, practice managers, practice nurses and receptionists at seven test sites.
Resources and E-learning
When you sign up to the programme you will get:
- a printed set of modules and downloadable PDF versions
- a range of over 70 different resources to choose from - including improvement tools, templates and pro-formas – to support implementation of the Productive General Practice.
The programme also includes:
- 14 instructional videos covering each module
- 27 case studies
- a package of 4 short e-learning mini-courses to support learning on the key methodologies used throughout.
Case studies
Read case studies relating to Productive General Practice.
What do I do next?
All PGP modules and resources mentioned here are part of the materials included in the Productive General Practice programme licence agreement.
English practices: To find out how you can sign up for the Productive General Practice programme please visit contact your local accredited delivery partner.
Scottish practices wishing to access Productive General Practice should contact Diane.Rich@rcgp.org.uk or find out further information here.
For all international queries please contact the Worldwide team: worldwide@institute.nhs.uk or call 02476 475808.

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