OBJECTIVES To explore Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited (AGPAL) surveyors' perceptions of the impact of accreditation on patient safety and to elicit suggestions for improving patient safety in Australian general practices. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS We conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with a purposive national sample of 10 AGPAL surveyors from 2 July to 14...

BACKGROUND Since 1991, all general practices have been encouraged to undertake clinical audit. Audit groups report that participation is high, and some local surveys have been undertaken, but no detailed national survey has been reported. AIM To determine audit activities in general practices and the perceptions of general practitioners (GPs) regarding the future of clinical audit in primary ...

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BACKGROUND Although the Australian Translating and Interpreting Service offers the world's largest free telephone health interpreter service, it remains underused. This study explores barriers for nonmedical practice staff to accessing telephone interpreters. METHODS Data were collected through five focus groups of 4-8 people. Participants were receptionists and practice nurses from the Austr...

BACKGROUND General practice registrars are now required to undertake a summative assessment of their consulting skills. Simulated surgeries have been developed as an alternative to the existing method of assessing video-recorded consultations. AIM To evaluate the simulated surgery assessment method, developed in the General Practice Postgraduate Education Department in Leicester, for use in a...

BACKGROUND The level of demand on primary care continues to increase. Electronic or e-consultations enable patients to consult their GP online and have been promoted as having potential to improve access and efficiency. AIM To evaluate whether an e-consultation system improves the ability of practice staff to manage workload and access. DESIGN AND SETTING A qualitative interview study in ge...

OBJECTIVE To derive demographic weightings to replace the existing system of prescribing units used in analysing prescribing by general practitioners in England. DESIGN The prescribing data for one year from a sample of 90 practices in 80 family health service authority areas were used to calculate the relative frequency with which items were prescribed, for each sex, in nine age bands and fo...

The proposals of the Cumberlege report are reviewed as they relate to general practitioners and the effectiveness of the primary health care team. An alternative proposal is described which uses combined general practitioner lists rather than a neighbourhood boundary to define the population served by a ;health care unit'. This would be the basis for both general practitioner and nursing care, ...

BACKGROUND Patients attending general practices receive only about sixty per cent of the preventive services that are indicated for them. This pilot study explores patient acceptability and perceived utility of automatically generated prevention summary and reminder sheets provided to patients immediately before consultations with their general practitioners. METHODS Adult patients attending ...

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) is often asymptomatic and substantially increases stroke risk. A single-lead iPhone electrocardiograph (iECG) with a validated AF algorithm could make systematic AF screening feasible in general practice. METHODS A qualitative screening pilot study was conducted in three practices. Receptionists and practice nurses screened patients aged ≥65 years using an ...