General practices need a safety alert system, says RCGP

General practices should have a patient safety alert system which allows them to suspend non-urgent work and access overflow hubs and extra locums to protect patients, the UK’s leading GP has said.Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, wants to see a system introduced in every integrated care system (ICS), modelled on the operational pressures escalation levels (OPEL) framework which is used by hospitals.Local medical committees have been calling for such a system for primary care for some time. RCGP said that it would enable practices and GPs to flag unsafe levels of workload, triggering support from their local health system. At these times of excessive workload GPs would be able temporarily to suspend some non-priority activities, such as regular health check-ups, some staff training, and non-urgent paperwork.Similar flexibility was given to GPs during the pandemic and allowed ICSs to work with practices to determine which activities could…
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