Peter Russell. New GP Standards Announced for Wales - Medscape - Mar 20, 2019.
New GP standards have been introduced in Wales in the light of recent survey results which suggested a decline in public satisfaction with services and increased concerns about the ease of making appointments.
The Welsh Government said that people in Wales deserved to know what to expect when they sought advice on health and wellbeing.
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Wales welcomed the results that showed most patients were satisfied with the services offered by their GP despite "difficult circumstances" in which rising patient demand outstripped capacity.
Patients' Expectations 'Not Being Met'
Vaughan Gething, health minister for Wales, said: "I know GPs and their practice teams are under pressure to meet demand but I also know people's expectations on GP access are not currently being met."
The Welsh Government said a recent national survey showed that 86% of patients were satisfied by their GP practice services in 2017-18, a fall of 4% on the figure for 2016-17.
Also, 42% of participants found it difficult to make an appointment at their practice in 2017-18, an increase from 38% in the previous year.
New Standards
The set of standards unveiled today for Wales said that:
People should receive a prompt response when they phone their GP practice
Practice telephone systems should be able to handle calls without patients having to call back to get through
Bilingual information on local and emergency services should be available when patients contact a practice
Information on how to get help and advice should be available
The right care at the right time should be offered in a 'joined up' way, based on patient needs
Patients should be able to contact a GP practice in a number of different ways
There should be an option to email a practice to request a non-urgent consultation or a call back
"Today’s announcement is not about putting additional pressure on our GP services, it is about them delivering a level of service patients in Wales should expect as a minimum," Mr Gething said. "For many practices across Wales, the standards I’ve announced today will already be in place, but for others this will be a journey of improvement.
"Over time I would like to see these standards developed further so that services are continually improving for the citizens of Wales."
GP practices in Wales, and their local health boards, have been told they must comply with the standards by March 2021, the RCGP said.
Financial support to help them achieve those goals would be announced in due course, the Welsh Government said.
RCGP Called for Increased Funding
Dr Peter Saul, joint chair of RCGP Wales, commented: "GPs always strive to deliver the highest standard of patient care and we are proud that the overwhelming majority of patients (86%) are satisfied with the service that they receive from their family doctor."
However, RCGP Wales said the current situation was also "concerning" for those working in the service, with 31% of GPs saying they were so stressed they felt unable to cope at least once a month, and 72% fearing that working in general practice would deteriorate over the next 5 years.
Despite sharing the minister's vision for improved GP services, this would only be achieved if funding for general practice in Wales rose to 11% of the total Welsh NHS budget, up from 7.3%, it said.
The spending boost "would mean that there would be enough GPs and members of the extended practice team in place to ensure that patients are able to receive the care that they need when they require it", RCGP Wales said.
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