A&E and ‘Urgent care’ are at the top of the list of topics in this feedback from the November meeting of the PEC committee with the NHS Wandsworth Management Team. Londoners are very keen – rather too keen – on using their A&E departments. Emergency and unplanned hospital admissions are running about 9% ahead of the planned provision. 7pm is the peak time which strongly suggests, writes Andrew, that is the time when GP should be offering walk in services. People going to A&E are saying they cannot see their GPs then. Do the younger residents of Wandsworth who come from parts of Europe where hospital is the first stop and primary care facilities like GPs are not the norm, understand how things work here? Andrew calls for a look at ways of changing the ways many of us are using A&E departments to make sure we all know that there are lots of places other than A&E to get urgent treatment.

Will the Primary Care Scorecard help?

Soon you will be seeing a table that ranks GP performance in a way that will be intelligible and useable for members of the public. This will be the ‘Primary Care Scorecard’ which will make comparisons between local GP practices. Andrew hopes that the final version of the scorecard will show both individual practices who are poor performers and areas of service where particular practices are performing poorly. He calls for action by the PCT to decommission consistently failing practices, tell their patients why and find them alternatives which offer better quality service.

Are You Ready to Share?

There is a system whereby your records can be shared over something called the EMIS Web System. This makes your medical records available when you are being treated in an emergency when looking at your GP medical notes or hospital records may not be possible. You will be asked for your consent for this sharing by your GP (if you have not been already). You have the right to take a look at them before they are uploaded to check their accuracy. The PEC committee are going to do a Privacy Impact Assessment to make sure that this is all in the patients’ interests.

Next Meetings

Andrew Craig reports in his capacity as the Lay Member on the PEC committee which regularly meets with the Wandsworth PCT management. The PEC meets again on 1st December and the NHS Wandsworth Board on 2nd December. This is a public meeting and you can find information about time and place here.