Patient trust and skill mix

Patients want to know the type of health professional they are seeing, for higher levels of patient confidence and trust in healthcare. New research also shows decreased levels of confidence and trust when speaking to a health professional on the phone or by video versus in-person appointments. Helping patients to understand various roles in general practice and providing clarity on who the patient is seeing are essential for building patient trust: an important factor in health care which is known to impact adherence and outcomes.

Lung cancer diagnosis: emergency vs referral

Healthcare use before lung cancer diagnosis is different for patients diagnosed in emergency versus those diagnosed via GP referral, according to researchers from University College London. They found that 33% of patients were emergency-diagnosed, and nearly all had consulted in primary care in the year pre-diagnosis, independently of diagnostic route. Emergency-diagnosed patients had shorter diagnostic windows than referred-route patients; and referred-route patients had higher rates of pre-diagnostic consultations for cough and chest X-ray use.

Innovation in urgent care

Featured in the BJGP's new Innovation in Practice section, this report shows how urgent care in an NHS trust transformed from being 'confusing,' 'complex,' and 'difficult to navigate,' to providing valuable additional capacity during peak demand, enabling easy booking, and receiving positive patient feedback. Through neighbourhood-based urgent care led by GP multi-neighbourhood providers, this trust addressed longstanding challenges in urgent care pathways by implementing substantial improvements to the GP out-of-hours service.