13 June 2006
At a meeting of RCGP Council on June 10,
Chairman of Council Professor Mayur Lakhani set the record straight
on proposals for primary care practice accreditation in England and
gave members a full explanation of the incidents leading up to the
media attention of last week.
RCGP Council supported the Chairman's
position to take forward the proposals for a voluntary scheme
of practice development in England, principally using the
College’s quality practice schemes QTD and QPA. The scheme
must not be compulsory or linked to the right to
practise.
A Council working group - including
representation from Faculties, patients and the GPC - will now
be set up to review the project and its recommendations will be
presented for consideration to College Council in
September. The College continues to be committed
to collaborative working with the GPC in the design
of a scheme which supports the development of practices and
allows primary care teams to clearly demonstrate a level of care
being delivered which is wider than that possible within the
Quality and Outcomes Framework of the new GMS contract. The scheme
will support quality improvement in primary care.
We would like to reiterate that the RCGP has
never advocated the use of “star ratings” or “league tables” for
practices. Our quality accreditation schemes (QTD) and (QPA) have
been running successfully for a number of years and have been
voluntarily undertaken in England by over 1,000 practices. We
would also like to emphasise that Professor Mayur Lakhani has the
support of RCGP Council in taking forward the proposals for
widening the scheme.
Development of the highest quality of care for
patients is a key objective of the College. It is vitally important
that the profession engages in this issue, with GPs leading the way
in setting the standards. The risk of not engaging is that an
inappropriate inspection process – without our professional input –
might be imposed.
Ends
Letter to all College members (PDF 57KB)