New research exploring primary care capacity challenges has revealed that practices aren’t seeing more patients despite increased appointment volumes but are seeing the same patients more frequently.
The findings were presented during the latest episode of “The Improving Healthcare Podcast and Webinar: General Practice – Creating Capacity Through Effectiveness, Not Volume,” hosted by Darren Jones, coinciding with the launch of the paper “General Practice – Prioritising Effectiveness Over Volume.”
The expert panel, featuring Nick Downham (Independent Health & Social Care Improvement Specialist and Director of Cressbrook Ltd), Steve Boam (CEO, Develop Consulting), and Simon Bricknell (Senior Consultant), drew on data from over 15,000 practice improvement sessions and work with more than 3,000 general practices.
Steve Boam explained: “GPs are reflecting back to us that they feel like they’re seeing more patients or the same patients more times. Capacity is still needed in their practices, therefore they’re not getting through the lists and access is suffering as well as quality of care.”
The research reveals that if you take all the people seen on a Monday, a third will return within a month. Of those, half will return within the second month, and nearly two-thirds will be seen again within the third month.
One of the most significant discoveries was that 19% of all GP consultations are products of “failure demand”, meaning practices are creating their own work through ineffective processes. The research also found that long-term frequent attenders had median continuity rates of just 33%, meaning these patients were seeing 20 or more individual GPs over a three-year period.
Simon Bricknell highlighted the challenges facing practices: “The most difficult one out of the seven for me that practices really struggle with is variation. People are working in practice in their own silos, seeing maybe the same presentations, but have no idea of the resulting actions and whether that varies from the next clinician.”
The paper identifies seven key areas where practices are losing capacity, including failure demand, access inequalities, patient looping, and poor continuity of care. Rather than adding more appointments, it advocates for understanding true population demand and addressing root causes of repeat visits.
Nick Downham concluded: “More activity does not mean more effective care. Fundamentally, clinicians and patients control your resource use, not managers. We must understand and revalue the work of general practice.”
Watch the full webinar discussion visit this link and you can download the complete thought leadership paper at : General Practice – Prioritising Effectiveness Over Volume
You can listen to the podcast version of this event by searching for The Improving Healthcare Podcast on all major podcast platforms.
For more information contact info@develop-consulting.co.uk
