A milestone 40 million patients now have a Summary Care Record and health professionals are using them to improve and speed up patient care every 30 seconds. NHS England is delighted by the achievement and is now focusing on rolling it out in A&E, NHS 111, and GP out-of-hours services. Usage of the SCR is […]

Tim Kelsey, NHS England’s National Director for Patients and Information, has today spoken about how a new, forward-thinking style of leadership is liberating patients and staff. In an article for Guardian Society online, he writes about a recent visit to the Hurley Group GP health centre based in the heart of London’s Olympic village which […]

NHS England is to launch a new pilot scheme that aims to help general practitioners assess the care and support needs of people with long-term conditions. A new assessment tool, known as patient activation, is designed to help GPs put people with long-term conditions at the centre of the care and support they receive. It […]

More than seven million patients across the country will benefit from innovative pilot schemes trialing improvements to GP access, funded by the £50m Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund. Twenty GP collaborations were successful in their bids to the fund and have been awarded investment to run pilots for a year. The Challenge Fund has created great […]

NHS England has today (3 April) outlined plans for how more than £230 million in funding will be used to ensure all GP practices across England have high-quality IT systems. Set out in an updated operating model for 2014-16, ‘Securing Excellence in GP IT Services’ (document available on our archived website), the plans aim to […]

NHS England has published our emerging findings report on a future strategy for commissioning general practice services. Building on the outcome of engagement with stakeholders in 2013 under Improving General Practice – a Call to Action, the report focuses on the central role NHS England wants general practice to play in wider systems of primary […]

Public urged to help NHS England cut no-show appointments Technology is being used to cut the numbers of missed GP and outpatient appointments, NHS England will announced Monday. Figures have suggested that more than twelve million GP appointments are missed each year in the UK, costing in excess of £162 million per year. A further […]

From 1 April 2014, GP practices will be offered the opportunity to take part in an enhanced service which is designed to reduce avoidable unplanned admissions by improving services for the most vulnerable patients and those with complex physical or mental health needs.  The key components of the enhanced service will be for practices to: […]

NHS England has today published the arrangements it will apply to ensure the most effective use of resources for Personal Medical Services (PMS). PMS is a locally-agreed alternative to General Medical Service (GMS) for providers of general practice. NHS England area teams will be reviewing PMS contracts over the next two years to ensure that […]

NHS England is today inviting GP surgeries to apply for part of a £50m ‘Challenge Fund’ to pilot improvements in access to appointments for up to half a million patients. As part of the Challenge Fund at least nine pilots will be set up with at least one in each region of England to support […]