Manager Practice ADVICE ON ONLINE


CONSULTATIONS A GUIDANCE document “with questions to ask” when considering the provision of online consultations to patients has been launched by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).


The guidance (tinyurl.com/ycnvwhtj)


comes as a growing number of services offering consultations online, most commonly via smartphone apps, are hitting the market. Whilst many of these are private, some have developed partnerships with GP practices in order to deliver NHS care (see page 10 of this issue). Professor Martin Marshall, Vice Chair of


the RCGP and author of the guidance, said: “Online consultations can seem like a very convenient option for accessing general practice services… But the ways some online services are provided raise patient safety concerns – people need to be aware of these, and properly understand what they are signing up to.”


NEW GDPR RESOURCES


GET ready for the new GDPR data protection rules with a range of practical resources from the MDDUS Risk Education team.


Members can login to a new topic area within our popular GP risk toolbox to access checklists, guidance sheets and articles designed to help you navigate this challenging new practice risk area. Visit the GP risk toolbox in the Training & CPD section of mddus.com.


FACTORS IN MISSED DUTY OF CANDOUR


IN SCOTLAND NEW duty of candour provisions in Scotland came into effect on 1 April. The provisions, as defined in the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care)


(Scotland) Bill, set out a range of things that must happen when there has been an unexpected event or incident resulting in death or harm during health or social care. Principles of candour exist in many organisations and professional codes of


conduct but the Act introduces a statutory organisational duty on health and social care services in Scotland. The government has produced a guide on the new provisions and a set of factsheets to help understand what is required (tinyurl. com/ke3f7qb).


SURGE IN TRIBUNAL CLAIMS THERE has been


a substantial rise in employment tribunal (ET) claims following the Supreme Court ruling that employment tribunal fees were unlawful and prevented access to justice for workers. The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice reveal an increase of 90 per cent in single ET claims between October and December 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. This follows an initial 64 per cent surge in new claims following the July 2017 ruling. Over 8,000 single claims were filed with


WWW.MDDUS.COM


GP APPOINTMENTS AGE and socio-economic status were significant factors in the one in five patients missing more than two GP appointments, as observed over a three-year period in a recent study published in the Lancet. Researchers in Glasgow and Lancaster analysed a data


the tribunal system over the three months to 31 December, a 16 per cent increase on the previous quarter. Workers in the UK had


been charged a fee to bring a claim to an employment tribunal. A further fee was also


charged if the claim was heard and another fee was levied to appeal the decision. However, statistics revealed that the number of tribunals had fallen as much as 70 per cent since the charges were introduced in 2013. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that tribunal fees were unlawful and not reasonably affordable for households on middle to low incomes.


03


set of over 500,000 GP patients in Scotland and found that patients aged 16–30 or over 90 years and of low socio-economic status were significantly more likely to miss multiple appointments. The study (tinyurl.com/ y7az7xxp) also found that urban practices in affluent areas with waiting times of two to three days were most likely to have patients who serially miss appointments. Dr Richard Vautrey, BMA GP committee chair, said: “Missed appointments do result in valuable time and resources being wasted, but we do need to understand the reasons why this occurs… [Patients] from lower socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to miss appointments and many of these patients are often under pressure financially or in other parts of their lives, factors that often contribute to their non-attendance. “It is important that the government and NHS works with GPs to find positive ways to encourage appropriate use of GP services and through education campaigns reinforces the importance of attending booked appointments, as well as the negative impact missing appointments have on other patients.”


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