Digital Access

Securing Excellence in Primary Care (GP) Digital Services: The Primary Care (GP) Digital Services Operating Model 2021-2023, NHS England, 2022.

The Operating Model is a commissioning framework supporting the provision of digital services required for general practices and primary care networks. It includes:

Defining the digital requirements for general practice
Standards and guidance on fulfilling these requirements to ensure quality, safety and compatibility
The responsibilities for fulfilling these requirements
The CCG agreement that CCGs are required to sign with each practice
Digital capabilities necessary to enable each practice to fulfil its obligations under the GP Contract
Funding arrangements for IT in general practice
Commissioning, procurement and contract management
Assurance: how NHS England evaluates the effectiveness of the Operating Model
Addressing the challenges of digital technologies in general practice

Creating a highly usable and accessible GP website for patients, NHS England, 2022.

A guide for practice managers, PCNs, ICSs etc. on improving GP websites. Including:

Making it easier for patients to achieve the tasks they use the website for
Keeping it up to date
NHS templates and design components
Taking a ‘mobile first ‘ approach
User experience
User testing
Accessibility
Data and analytics
Tendering processes
Evaluating suppliers
Contractual requirements of a GP website

Digital First Primary Care, NHS England.

The NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019, commits to every patient having the right to be offered digital-first primary care by 2023/24. Digital First Primary Care is a programme which supports the transformation of primary care by promoting the implementation, understanding and improvement of digital tools within general practice e.g. online consultation requests and video consultations.

These pages include:

NHS England’s commitment to a digital-first approach
Digital requirements of the GP contact
Procurement
NHS Digital Care Services (DCS) catalogue, including list of suppliers
Digital First online consultation and video consultation framework
National Commercial and Procurement Hub, expert procurement advice and support to buy through the DCS catalogue
Resources: online Consultations toolkit, patient leaflet and evaluation form
Contact details for advice

Digital Primary Care, NHS Futures Workspace.

A platform for primary care colleagues to come together and share experiences, learning and resources. Includes:

How to implement digital transformation
Toolkits e.g. inclusive access toolkit
How to procure digital systems
Digital requirements of the GP contract
Digital inclusion and inclusive access routes to general practice
Data
GP IT Services: digitisation of GP records, GP IT Futures and GP IT Operating Model
Webinars
Discussion board and blog

Digital Access Inequalities

Digital primary care: Improving access for all? Rapid evidence review, Charlotte Paddison, Nuffield Trust, 2022.

Brief evidence summary of the impact of increased use of digital technologies in primary care on access. Includes:

Digital exclusion and inequalities in access
Tackling inequalities through inclusion, choice and personalisation
Gaps in the evidence e.g. the impact on people with protected characteristics and how these intersect

Digital exclusion and health inequalities, Good Things Foundation, 2021.

This briefing paper provides an overview of digital exclusion and its relationship to health, social and economic aspects of people’s lives. Includes:

What is digital exclusion?
Digital exclusion and health, social and economic aspects of people’s lives
Impact of the pandemic
The groups most affected
Policy and practical responses
Ideas for collaborating for change

Access to and delivery of general practice services: a study of patients at practices using digital and online tools, The Health Foundation, 2022.

A study analysing data from 7,558,820 patient-initiated requests for primary care made using the askmyGP online consultation system between 1 March 2019 and 30 September 2021. Online requests were made by patients online, or by practice staff for patients who preferred to use the phone or visit in person.

Key findings:

10% of patient care requests made to GP practices indicate a preference for a face-to-face consultation
Online requests were increasing before the pandemic
The rate of requests has increased during the pandemic, and is not driven by increased ability to access the practice online
Almost 40% of all requests across these practices, regardless of the access route, were from the top 10% of requesters (frequent attenders)
Care tended to be delivered according to patient characteristics, clinical/administrative needs, and preference
More than 83% of all requests made at these practices were responded to within the same working day and the median time to respond was less than 4 working hours
The use of an online consultation system alongside multimodal care delivery can be effective in managing demand and does not seem to disadvantage non-digital users. although more work is required to look at impacts relating to socioeconomic and health inequalities