Everyone’s talking about a crisis in general practice. So just how bad it it? How many more consultations are being done each week? Have the patients got more complicated? Or more demanding?

The truth is, there’s really no way of knowing at the moment. Despite the vast amounts of data that is collected by individual practices, basic activity information isn’t centrally reported. A national workload survey was run between 1993 and 2007 but there hasn’t been anything similar since.

The figures that are used by national organisations to talk about the number of GP consultations are projections from that survey last  run in 2007 and we know health services have changed a lot in the last 8 years. For example, some CCGs have introduced policies to ban non-urgent consultant-to-consultant referrals, which means patients have to go back to their GP for another referral. Shorter lengths of stay in hospital have also led to more pressure for GPs and financial challenges facing social services have also added to the pressure.

But without data, it’s very hard to make the right decisions about what should be done to help. Does general practice need more funding? Probably, but exactly how much is unknown. More GPs? Or more nurses? Does there need to be more coordination with other services? A different way to manage repeat prescriptions? A different way of organising services?

The King’s Fund is trying to address the lack of data by running a research project over the next few months. We’d love to hear from practices who’d be willing to fill out a short survey with basic data from their own information systems (not any patient identifiable clinical data) or allow researchers to come to the practice and talk to the staff. If you’re interested there’s more info here or email Alison Jury [email protected]

Written by: Beccy Baird, Fellow, Health Policy, The King’s Fund
[email protected]