April 1st 2004. New GP contract. Will it affect patients?
Starting on 1st April 2004, the way in which General Practitioners work in the NHS will change. You may not notice things being different straight away, but you need to know about it because you may notice changes as time goes by. You will then understand what is behind the changes.

Background
When the NHS started in 1948, general practitioners provided basic medical care to the patients registered with them for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Much has changed since 1948. The government has recognised that nobody nowadays can work like that. A new contract has been agreed that is very different. It recognises that general practitioners should be able to limit their working hours to a reasonable level, and that they should provide high quality medical care within those hours. It is also recognised that much of the work of general practitioners is concerned with the ongoing care of patients with permanent diseases such as diabetes and asthma, for which there is good quality treatment that should be available to all. The government has set quality and outcome targets and wants GPs to try their best to achieve them in order get high quality medical care for all.

Some of the changes that will happen
1. Patients will no longer have a named doctor they are registered with. Patients will be registered with a practice instead.

2. Doctors will be responsible for providing a medical service between 8am and 6-30pm Monday to Friday. Outside these times, it will be the responsibility of the Primary Care Trust to provide an Out of Hours service.

3. Patients with the following diseases will be monitored in a way that ensures they receive high quality care. Asthma, diabetes, hypertension, underactive thyroid, epilepsy, severe mental health problems, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, stroke or mini-stroke, cancer.

4. Patients who smoke will have their tobacco consumption monitored annually and encouraged and helped to give up.

5. Accurate medical records will be built up on our computer, working towards an integrated National Health Computer record on every patient.

6. Some services, instead of being provided by your GP may be provided by other agencies instead.

There are many other changes, most of which will not be noticed, but all patients will notice that we will be gathering more information about lifestyle factors that affect health, such as smoking, weight and alcohol consumption for our computer record. We will also need all patients registering for the first time to provide us with this information, and to comply with the chronic disease monitoring programmes if they are sufferers. There is an option to decline monitoring if you object.

These changes have come about so that medical treatment standards can be measured and raised. Patients are encouraged to participate in their own care management.

How will it affect you?
Probably you will not notice any change at all.

If you notice anything it will probably be that we are regularly asking you about unhealthy lifestyle issues such as smoking and weight. And if you suffer from one of the disease above, we will be asking more questions and doing more checks to ensure you are getting the best treatment.

This is all part of the Government's plan to improve the National Health Service and thereby improve the health of the nation. Including yours!