News

RCGP calls for less arduous regulation, more trust in GPs

A new report published by the Royal College of GPs calls for a permanent reduction in bureaucracy and red tape in the post-coronavirus period, allowing GPs to focus time and efforts to manage the aftermath of Covid-19 at a community level.

The report looks at how the coronavirus pandemic will shape the future of general practice.

Throughout the last few months, there has been evidence of general practice functioning well with fewer bureaucratic processes, such as contractual and regulatory compliance activities, with the report making the case for adopting some of the lessons learned out of this beyond the initial virus response.

Ensuring a high level of regulation and regular processes to ensure and safeguard patient safety and quality of care remains a priority of the report, but the College also emphasises the need for a shift towards a model with a greater level of trust in GPs, allowing them more time to focus on delivering patient care rather than carrying out bureaucratic processes.

The College is calling for the development of action plans to ensure GPs’ time is spent on frontline patient care rather than box-ticking exercises, particularly with an increase in clinical workload expected post-coronavirus.

Specifically, the College has called for:

• the introduction of new approaches to intelligence-led monitoring of the quality and safety of care, minimising the administrative requirements on practices particularly in countries which have low-trust systems of assurance
• contractual requirements, such as QOF and QAIF, to focus on high-trust approaches to assuring or improving quality with low administrative requirements
• the implementation of a new yearly appraisal system across the UK, minimising pre-appraisal documentation and the administrative burden on GPs and focussed on wellbeing, reflective practice and development
• the rapid review of requirements for returning GPs to reduce the administrative requirements for getting GPs back into the workforce, including retaining them on Medical Performers Lists for longer, with greater flexibility, underpinned by further investment to support and incentivise their return.

Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “While we recognise that regulation has a place in general practice, the fact is that 95% of GP practices are rated good or outstanding. Making GPs and our teams go through box-ticking exercises has little patient benefit and isn’t the best use of our time, especially as we deal with the expected surge in clinical workload in the aftermath of Covid-19.

“We are asking the governments in all four nations to make changes to ensure we can spend more time with patients.

“It’s imperative we learn from the pandemic and strive to create a better functioning ‘normal’ for general practice, rather than simply returning to the way things used to be. We need Governments to trust GPs to do our job well, and safely, and if they do, the ultimate beneficiaries will be our patients.”