Sheffield patients are set to benefit from a more efficient healthcare service, thanks to the work of a group of local GPs and Practice Managers.
Over the past year the Central Sheffield GP Consortium, made up of 27 practices, has saved more than £823,000 by working to provide a better service for their patients, through effective referral management and prescribing more cost-effective, evidence-based medication.
The money saved will now go back into the Consortium for investing in patient care, allowing them to introduce innovative and exciting new schemes that will guarantee patients get the best services available.
Michelle Wilde, Practice Manager said: “We’ve been working alongside relevant stakeholders such as nurses, pharmacists and GP’s to come up with solutions and ideas that can help improve prescribing across the consortium.
“In turn, we’ve managed to save thousands of pounds, providing the Consortium with a huge boost that will allow us to fund more innovative schemes across a variety of areas including mental health, diabetes, obstetrics and outpatient referral management.”
As a result of the effective work to obtain these savings, the Consortium has developed a Prescribing team to continue the good work already started, consisting of Michelle Wilde, Dr Richard Hill of Woodseats Practice, GP Prescribing lead and Bhavana Reddy, Pharmacist prescribing support for the Consortium.
Together they will develop and introduce new ideas for use within Primary Care and hold regular educational events for clinical prescribers in the area to focus on local concerns and issues.
The Consortium are also to introduce pioneering software called Scriptswitch – a prescribing support package that will provide prescribers with up-to-date information about the safety and cost-efficiency of medication.
The GP Consortium, which was launched in August 2006, brings GP practices together to develop innovative solutions to improve the quality and delivery of medical services within the community.
Prescribing is just one of the Consortium’s eight clinical sub-groups, responsible for redesigning services with the aim of removing health inequalities across the city.