Regular GP visits could help reduce workload in practices and hospitals

New research indicates that seeing the same general practitioner could reduce the workload in practices and hospitals, so that agreements for patients could possibly be released.

The study was conducted by Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, the Medical School of the University of Exeter and the practice of St Leonard in Exeter. The research focuses on the continuity of care – whether there is an advantage of patients who see the same general practitioner in most of their agreements. Since 2012, this continuity has been declining in patient care, and patients are increasingly seeing multiple GPS within a practice, or temporarily placed GPS, known as locums.

Now, the new research, published in the British Journal of General Practice, proposes to see the same general practitioner results in fewer follow-up agreements, both in practices and in A&O departments of hospitals.

The research analyzed the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, which contains anonymized data from 222 practices in England in 2015 to 2017. In the study, researchers looked at patients who were initially seen for appointments that did not relate to long -term disorders. The researchers looked at how they were followed in the course of time. They split GPS into three categories: the regular GPS of the patients with whom the patient had continuity, all other practice GPS without continuity with the patient and GP locums. Between these three categories they compared the time with the next consultation, plus the hospital use after the appointment. Locums often see more patients in the day, so for a fair comparison, this study only looked at consultation in which the general practitioner prescribed antibiotics.

The research team has adjusted adjustments to take factors into account, including the age of patients and the number of overlapping disorders. They discovered that patients who regularly saw the same general practitioner had a longer time before their next consultation – on average 61 days compared to 56 for other general practitioners, which means that less consultation was needed in practice.

The team also discovered that patients who saw their regular general practitioners were less likely (22 percent for non-regular GPS and 30 percent for locums) to attend emergency departments in the same week and were also considerably more likely to be referred to a specialist.

Professor Stefan Scholtes of Cambridge Judge Business School said: “We know that patients have problems getting general practitioner agreements, and we see long waiting times at A&E departments. It is encouraging that this study shows that as general practices patients help them See them to see them.

Our earlier research has shown that seeing the same general practitioner is regularly linked to numerous patient benefits, including fewer hospital admissions and the risk of death, and better care for people with dementia. At a time when workload is probably the biggest problem with which general practices are confronted, it is promising to find a research -based way of working that can reduce the overall workload of the practice. “

Professor Philip Evans of the University of Exeter and the research practice of St Leonard, Exeter

The study is entitled ‘Continuity and locum use for acute consultation: observational study of subsequent workload’ and was published in the British Journal of General Practice.