National General Practice Improvement Programme

The national General Practice Improvement Programme (GPIP), was introduced as part of the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. The programme provides tailored support to general practice to make changes and improvements.

Why does general practice need support?

Demand and complexity in general practice are increasing, and practices are facing a widening gap between patient demand and the capacity available to meet that demand. All practices have pressures and workforce challenges, with these often felt most acutely in practices working in areas of high need and deprivation, and in rural areas.

Peer ambassadors: enabling transformation and improvement

Who are peer ambassadors?

Peer ambassadors are a network of frontline leaders in general practice, nominated by their integrated care boards (ICBs) to champion transformation and improvement. They have operational expertise, practical experience, and strong local relationships, enabling them to play a pivotal role in supporting other practices to adopt and embed modern general practice (MGP).

What do they do?

Working together with NHS England, ICB leaders, and their peers, they support general practice to adopt evidence-based improvements and embed change. Their lived experience of transformation enables them to offer authentic, operational support to their peers in other practices – building confidence, sharing learning, and accelerating the spread of innovation.

Enabling transformation and improvement

Peer ambassadors are a key part of national and ICB strategies to build local capability, knowledge, and leadership in general practice. The ambassadors also act as system leaders, bringing the voice of general practice into strategic discussions and feeding back frontline insights to shape future transformation.

The aims of peer ambassadors are to:

  • support the implementation and adoption of MGP within their ICB area
  • support general practices across the system to improve
  • support the implementation of neighbourhood working within their ICB
  • act as ‘system leaders’, for example feeding back issues arising from the frontline to ICBs
  • contribute to the capability, skills and experience of delivering complex change within the local health and care system

How can peer ambassadors support practices?

This England-wide network of experienced professionals is working to transform general practice by supporting individual practices and primary care networks – and the development neighbourhood teams. If your practice would like support from a peer ambassador, please contact your ICB for further details about ambassadors in your area or email england.engagepcti@nhs.net

The modern general practice model

A wide range of GP practices across England have innovated in response to these challenges and have created the different elements of a ‘modern general practice model’.

GPIP has helped practices implement this modern general practice approach and realise benefits quickly.

Here are some examples of how practices have made improvements and embedded modern general practice after receiving hands-on support from GPIP.

Gresleydale Healthcare Centre, in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, worked together with its Patient Participation Group to implement changes in telephone and website systems that would help to address the ‘8am rush’. In this short video, practice staff and patients explain the improvements that have been made to make booking appointments easier and the impact this has had on patient and staff satisfaction.

Abbey Medical Centre, in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, transformed the way patients accessed care by using its new digital telephony system to identify when telephone lines were busiest and ensure more reception staff were available at peak times. As a result, the number of abandoned calls at the practice fell. The practice also focused on improving access and care continuity. Ryan Smith, Non-Clinical Partner at the practice, said: “The General Practice Improvement Programme really helped us continue to improve our services so that more patients can get the care they need more easily. It’s particularly helped the patients who we previously saw most frequently, many as often as twice a week, by enabling us to focus on how we provide the best care for them, so they get the care they need with fewer appointments, which is better for them and means there are more appointments available for others who also need them.”
Hillside Practice is a semi-rural practice close to Saltburn-by-the-Sea in North Yorkshire. It transformed patient experience with marked improvements in website use, patient safety measures and care navigation. The practice measured patterns of patient contacts to match capacity to demand. This helped the practice make full use of its multi-disciplinary team, e.g. social prescribing link workers, to support with non-clinical problems. Patient safety processes also improved as the practice enhanced its patient re-call process.
Crabbs Cross Surgery, in Redditch, Worcestershire, made a range of improvements to improve patient access and experience. It invested in care navigation training for staff, put in place consistent processes to make use of the skills in its multi-disciplinary team and ensured that each patient saw the right professional at the right time. The practice improved its appointment allocations through more proactive care and tailored the length of appointments to ensure adequate time to respond to individual patients’ needs.