Issue - items at meetings - GP Performance

30.1        Geraldine Hoban, Chief Operating Officer from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) presented a report on the GP Scorecards system for assessing GP performance.

30.2         The Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee had had an update from NHS Sussex about contractual issues; they had asked for more information about quality performance.

30.3        Ms Hoban explained the GP scorecard system for performance assessment. It is a national system and has been used in Brighton and Hove for three years. The benefit of the scorecard system is that it gives consistent data which can be more easily interpreted.

30.4        The intention was that GP surgeries could compare themselves with similar practices and find out which areas were high performing or which needed improvements. The assessments were carried out on an annual basis and surgeries were banded as A, B or C. In the last assessment, a number of surgeries had moved up a banding, showing that they were performing better than they had been previously, although two surgeries had moved down a banding.

30.5        Ms Hoban said that she understood that there were differing levels of knowledge about the GP performance system amongst HWOSC members. The CCG was offering to host a workshop on GP Performance later in the year so that people could learn more about the assessment process. This was welcomed.

30.6        Councillors thanked Ms Hoban for her presentation and the offer of the workshop, and commented on the report about GP performance.

30.7        Councillor Bowden queried the management costs for the CCG compared to the management costs for the PCT. Ms Hoban said that the CCG had been allocated running costs of £25 per head of population,  in comparison to £40 per head which had been allocated to the PCT, so there would be a significant saving.

30.8        Councillor Marsh said that for a large number of people, there was no choice about which GP surgery they could use due to geographical constraints and/ or closed waiting lists for other surgeries.

30.9        Councillor Wealls and Councillor Bowden asked about the type of sanctions that the CCG had for poorly performing surgeries. Ms Hoban said that it was managed primarily through the relationships between GP practices and that there were no formal sanctions available to the CCG.

30.10    Councillor Robins asked if there was any information about the use of locums on GP performance statistics. Ms Hoban said that this could be taken up at the workshop.

30.11    Mr Watkins for the LINk said that he was aware that some surgeries were replacing doctors with ‘super-nurses’ and wondered about the impact that this would have on GP performance and patient care.

30.12    Councillor Wealls welcomed the scorecard information and said that there needed to be a significant amount of publicity for members of the public.

30.13    RESOLVED – members agreed to take up the CCG’s offer of a seminar on performance and quality in Primary Care.