GP led Commissioning
As GPs take a key role in the commissioning process, communication, engagement and insight will become even more important to inform commissioning and service development and achieve value for money.
New GP consortia will need to commission services – in a world of finite and reducing resources – on the basis of robust insight. They will need to do this in a way that, meets with their statutory obligations, protects their reputation and encourages their patients to be partners in managing costs and achieving value for money.
Maintaining Trust
GPs are the most trusted group of professionals in the UK, but the new commissioning system will make trust more difficult. As GPs make decisions about which drugs and services to buy, they will be in the front line of public anxiety about refusing a specific treatment or taking patients away from local hospitals. Communicating decisions honestly and effectively will be key to maintaining patients’ confidence in the system and ensuring that people believe they are being treated fairly.
It's not just about PR
Traditional public relations will not be enough to maintain trust and reputation. GPs will need to:
- reach out beyond the usual suspects – who will often dominate existing panels and formal meetings
- engage with hard to reach groups – some of which can be identified through traditional demographic segmentation and some whose values make them much less likely to participate
- communicate with everybody that does not go to surgery or hospital often, in order to engage with the whole population as well as patients
Effective Patient Participation
GP practices will be incentivised to improve public participation and respond to the needs and wishes of patients through Patient Participation Directed Enhanced Services (DESs), Patient Reference Groups (PRGs), and local patient surveys. TCC can help GPs, their consortia and PCT Clusters develop this by:
- engaging with patients to design, develop and recruit a PRG formal structure, panel or network, depending on the nature of the community the practice covers conducting insight work with PRGs, informal patient networks, or the wider population
- collecting patient views through surveys that gain deep insight into both personal and community narratives
- facilitating engagement events for people to discuss patient views, agree priorities and develop local action plans
- communicating what the practice has done and what it has achieved, getting messages right by understanding local preferences and values
Making the most of your existing resources
This opportunity for wider engagement at a time of financial challenge means GP consortia will need to use their resources they have to hand and many of these - in terms of people involved - are currently underutilised in creating effective local two-way conversations with patients and the wider public:
In a time of financial challenge, GPs and their partners will need to make the most of the resources they already have – strengthening existing personal relationships with patients and staff, and encouraging two-way communications as a way of life.
- all GPs will need to maintain and expand strong personal relationships with their patients to ensure trust stays strong. It’s not just those who directly commission who need to do this. GPs on the ground will be leading local communicators. In both cases they will need the support to effectively deliver this new role.
- other GP consortia staff have a key role to play in listening to patient concerns, for example picking up inaccurate stories or anecdotes early and understanding local public narratives about any proposed service changes. They can also help with communicating the right messages in response. As such, training that supports effective two-way conversations as part of comprehensive patient and public engagement will be vital.
- some patients will be themselves trusted and influential in the local community. Knowing who they and their networks are and using them proactively in the engagement process will also be increasingly important.
Shared Decision-Making
We can only manage shared decision making if we understand that different people have different motivations to take part. This is often driven by the values they hold. TCC have unrivalled experience in combining values based insight with focused interventions in some of the most hard to engage communities in the country.
We have substantial experience working in the field of patient and public engagement with a range of current commissioners, including the NHS and GPs in Cumbria, who have led the way in GP led locality based commissioning and engagement through stakeholder groups and panels.
To find out more about our services for GPs and commissioners, contact Jonathan Upton: jonathan@thecampaigncompany.co.uk or 020 8688 0650.
Last Updated on Thursday, 21 April 2011 10:14