From the 1st April 2015, all practices are required, by NHS England, to allocate all patients with a named accountable GP.
This means that practices will need to ensure that each patient on their practice list is assigned a named accountable GP.
Individual patients will be informed of their named accountable GP at the first appropriate interaction with the practice.
Where a patient expresses a preference as to which GP they have been assigned, the practice will make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request.
Having a named GP does not mean you can only see this GP. Patients are entitled to choose to see any GP or nurse in the practice. The named GP will not take on 24 hour responsibility for you, or make a change to their working hours. The requirement does not imply personal availability for GPs throughout the working week. The named accountable GP cannot be the only GP to care for you.
What does this mean to me, as a patient?
The new GP contract requires the named accountable GP to take responsibility for the co-ordination of all appropriate services required under the contract and ensure they are delivered to each of our patients, where required. The contract remains ‘practice based’, so overall responsibility for patient care has not changed. This is largely a role which oversees the requirement being introduced, to reassure our patients that they have one GP within the practice who is responsible for ensuring that this work is carried out on their behalf.
If you would like to know the name of your Accountable GP, please contact the surgery.
