Out of hours services that meet the health needs of patients in an appropriate time and setting are of fundamental importance to the health service. GPs, as the expert medical generalist at the heart of the community, play a vital role in delivering patient centred care in both the in and out of hours periods.
GP Provided Out Of Hours Care
In February 2015 the RCGP published a paper describing the vital role general practice plays in providing out of hours care to patients and outlining a set of policy recommendations for how out of hours GP services can be better supported to meet the needs of patients.
As a means to support GP led models of out of hours care the RCGP has also produced a paper containing examples of GP provided care.