Primary medical care is the cornerstone of the NHS. Providing the majority of patient contacts; access, coordination and continuity are the key offers of effective and efficient services. However, quality and safety can be variable and there is currently no single defining set of measures for quality in primary care.
In order to deliver significant improvements in this area the SHA Cluster Board has agreed four objectives for this ambition:
- Develop emerging clinical commissioning groups to undertake quality assessments of their practices, and to support quality improvement
- Significantly reduce prescribing of quinolones and cephalosporins, broad spectrum antibiotics associated with C. difficile
- Improve management of patients taking the anticoagulant Warfarin
- Ensure patients receive the best quality in care for managing their diabetes.
This ambition will be clinically led and take an educational and developmental approach. Using existing data sources and defined best practice the projects will work with emerging clinical commissioning groups, PCT clusters and general practices to deliver improvements.