RCGP chair calls for safety alert system in general practice

Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Professor Kamila Hawthorne has called for a patient safety alert system to be introduced in general practice that is modelled on the operational pressures escalation levels (Opel) warnings – known as “black alerts” – already in use at hospitals.

Ahead of the RCGP's annual conference today, Hawthorne said:

“General practice is a safety-critical industry yet GPs have none of the mechanisms that other safety-critical professions, such as the air traffic industry, have in place to protect them.

“Our number one priority is the safety of our patients, but GPs are doing more and more to try to meet the rising demand for our services. When you’re fatigued, you’re more likely to make mistakes and our survey shows that many GPs are no longer able to guarantee that the care they are providing to their patients is as safe as it could be.”

In her address to the conference in Glasgow, Hawthorne introduced the RCGP's Seven steps to save general practice manifesto.

As well as the new safety measures, the manifesto calls for premises funding, 'fairer' resource allocation from the NHS budget, action on health inequality and investment for 12,000 more GPs.

In a rallying call to members, Hawthorne said:

"As GPs we need to mobilise – engage with our local MPs, share our Manifesto with them, invite them to attend our Parliamentary reception, and if possible, to visit our practices to see and to talk about the issues we’re facing – the workload, the workforce shortages, the stagnant, inflexible funding, the bureaucracy, the increasing morbidity in our communities, and the future needs of our patients and how we would like to care for them".

Read the full speech here