GP leaders have reacted in dismay to government proposals to press on with requiring practices to charge overseas visitors for care. The plan was contained in the Queen’s Speech published yesterday. The Royal College of GPs said it would add paperwork to practices at a time when the Government had promised to reduce it. The…

The controversial Quality and Outcomes Framework shows no evidence of having saved lives through improvements in general practice, according to a major new study published today. QOF, introduced 12 years ago, has paid a large part of practice earnings as payments for specific tasks aimed at tackling problems such as hypertension. But it has become…

  In the last week or so, a further 79 inspection reports were published by the CQC. Of those, 59 practices were found to be good and five outstanding. This marks an upward trend in the percentage of practices receiving high scores and brings the total number of outstanding practices up to 149. Continuing our…

There is for a change, some good news to shout about. The GPC has requested a judicial review of a CQC inspection – hopefully you either saw the article in Pulse, or my thread on the forum, or both!  It’s about time they were called to account for what I would consider to be at…

A topic that we’re often asked about is mandatory training for members of the GP practice team – and more specifically, what the CQC expects to happen in practices. The topic is actually one that’s addressed in the excellent CQC mythbuster series – available on the CQC website. This handy guidance outlines exactly what inspectors…

GP practices, along with other types of business, need to ensure they meet the minimum legal requirements and comply with sector specific standards with regard to employees’ terms and conditions of employment and, more widely, HR policies and procedures. However, this doesn’t mean having a policy for everything, as this only creates unnecessary bureaucracy and…

“Doctors say that the pressure on GPs in England and Wales is now so great that many feel they are failing patients and potentially providing unsafe care.” Extract from smart clinics web site. The BMA are concerned, according to media reports, that GPs have reached the stage where consultations are rushed and patients are now…