Improving access to Primary Care

Winter is the busiest time for our NHS and social care services and it’s no secret that they’re under tremendous pressure.  The impact of this is acutely felt across our Primary Care services, which include general practice and community pharmacies, amongst others.

Last winter, the outbreak of Strep A amongst children put huge pressure and strain on primary care services.  As a result, many GP practices had to adapt to cope with the high demand for appointments.  We’re a year on and it’s unclear what the biggest challenges will be this winter, but we can anticipate that demand for appointments will remain high.

Earlier this year, we spoke to a number of professionals about some of the innovative work that is being implemented and delivered to improve access to Primary Care services.  We spoke to Alison Frankland, who is the Practice Manager at Moray Coast Medical Practice and Dr Savannah Irving, GP at Perth City Medical Centre to find out about the problems they faced last winter and how we’ve worked with their teams to overcome them.  We also spoke to our very own Primary Care Improvement Portfolio Lead, April Masson, who told us more about how our Primary Care Access programme is hoping to solve some of the pressures that general practice can face and what it’s looking to achieve. 

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You can follow the work of Healthcare Improvement Scotland at www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org

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