28 September 2011

RCGP Consultation on Developing Integrated Care

Integrated care works to ensure that patients are central to the design and delivery of care and that services meet their healthcare needs through apparently seamless, high quality and effective systems.

Integrated care works to ensure that patients are central to the design and delivery of care and that services meet their healthcare needs through apparently seamless, high quality and effective systems.

To ensure services are delivered as efficiently as possible the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has launched the RCGP Integration of Care Consultation and is keen to gain as much comment on the issue as possible.

Dr Clare Gerada, RCGP Chair of Council said: “Over the last few months integration of care has been moving rapidly up the healthcare and political agendas. As GPs assume a more central role in commissioning local health services it is important that we play a central role in leading this debate. The RCGP has therefore launched a new consultation on what integration means for general practice and for general practitioners. We would like to get as much feedback on this consultation as possible. We have also developed a survey outlining key questions around integrated care, to ensure even the busiest people get a chance to have a say.

“This is a crucially important issue and responses will go towards developing a policy that could change the way services are delivered for our patients."

The RCGP has been a champion of integrated care systems throughout its history and, more recently, the College developed the concept of Primary Care Federations, working with other Royal Colleges to develop models for integrating care across health services.

The RCGP Integration of Care Consultation is available on the RCGP website, alongside an executive summary outlining the key issues. The survey is not just open to GPs and all comments are welcome.

The closing date for this consultation is Monday 31 October 2011 at 09.00am.


FURTHER INFORMATION

RCGP Press office – 020 3188 7574/7575/7576
Out of hours: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk

NOTES

Full information on the RCGP Integration of Care Consultation can be found at:
http://www.rcgp.org.uk/policy/government_reforms/integration_of_care.aspx

Shared or integrated care is not a new idea and as a model of care was described by the RCGP as early as 1960's. The College believes integrated care should be defined as multidisciplinary team working, where each member works across professional boundaries but maintaining their professional autonomy, where possible using a shared budget and ideally a shared electronic (GP) patient record.

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of over 42,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.