A study has warned further action is needed on workforce shortages despite finding that targeted investment is helping GP practices deliver better care for patients.
A report, led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and commissioned by the Scottish Government, has been published as part of the primary care phased investment programme.
HIS, a public body which acts as a watchdog and regulator, worked with four areas to test whether additional funding and structured quality improvement support could improve multi-disciplinary team services.
The sites: included NHS Ayrshire & Arran; NHS Borders; Edinburgh City Health and Social Care Partnership; and NHS Shetland.
The report calls for realistic expectations, long-term investment, strong leadership, and improvement expertise
Across the four areas the programme found that investment, quality improvement support and strong leadership led to improved access to services and more appropriate redistribution of workload from GPs to multi-disciplinary staff, ensuring patients were seen by the most appropriate person.
However, the report concluded that additional investment alone is not enough to fully implement multi-disciplinary team working.
It said that persistent challenges included: workforce shortages and sustainability; recruitment difficulties; limited digital and physical infrastructure; and lack of clarity about what full implementation looks like.
Belinda Robertson, associate director of improvement support at HIS, said: “The report’s findings are incredibly useful in informing future policy development.
“The report calls for realistic expectations, long-term investment, strong leadership, and improvement expertise.
“This insight is of invaluable importance in helping to plan and deliver the reform of GP services for the future.”
The report recommends a more flexible, needs-based approach. It highlights that the needs of each local area are critical and must reflect population needs, geography and workforce availability.
Responding to the report’s findings, Health Secretary Angela Constance said: “We welcome the recommendations in this report which will inform our next steps, including the developing business case for GP MDT working. We remain committed to general practice multi-disciplinary team working and recognise its benefits as clearly illustrated in this report.
“This programme has played a key role in bringing together policy, improvement and delivery teams to test approaches to improve the implementation of the general practice multi-disciplinary team (GP MDT) element of the 2018 GP contract.
“We value the key role that general practice plays in people’s care. We are underpinning that by increasing investment in general practice by £531 million over three years to significantly boost recruitment from this year, helping to deliver the capacity needed to improve services for patients and we have opened seven GP-led walk-in services in just over four months to help with capacity issues.”