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- Page navigation anchor for Personal lists are not impractical. Look at Norway!Personal lists are not impractical. Look at Norway!
Dr Neaves rightly raises the issue of the named GP scheme. The architect of the scheme Jeremy Hunt recognises that it failed as a scheme,1 as for the majority of patients nothing much changed. Most patients in England got a rather apologetic prescription message (e.g. we have to allocate you a named GP but you do not need to see them and it will not impact on your care).
Practices where patients see a preferred GP most of the time2 are either small (less than 5000 patients) with a few GP or have an active plan to encourage continuity e.g. personal lists. This suggests that continuity has to be encouraged throughout the patient journey – from the call to reception to seeing their preferred GP.
Personal lists work with Part-time GPs. UK experience backs this up and there are many examples submitted to the Health Select Committee that is currently running. In our practice all GPs work 3-4 days a week and we achieve a SLICC score of 88.15% for all GP appointments in 2022. GPs in Norway work 3-4 days a week in primary care and run personal lists for 4.5 million patients with fantastic benefits – ‘lower use of OOH services, fewer acute hospital admissions, and lower mortality. The presence of a dose–response relationship between continuity and these outcomes indicates that the associations are causal.3’
n conclusion personal lists are not impractical and do have an impact especially...
Competing Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for Continuity of GP care, using personal lists in general practiceContinuity of GP care, using personal lists in general practiceThis is interesting but well known that personal lists improve patient outcomes. What would really be helpful for UK general practice is to know if named GPs, and practices that organise their care to actively use this for patient contacts improves care. Personal lists are so uncommon and largely impractical with most GPs not present at work every day that this is going to have little impact on patient outcomes overall in the UK.Competing Interests: None declared.