In brief

Lead organisation: Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust

Partners: Milton Keynes Practice Based Commissioning Collaborative, University of Oxford, Department of Primary Health Care and Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Milton Keynes Patient Forum.

This project aims to make effective the policy of practice-based commissioning, ensuring it is primary care led, patient focused and evidence based. It means GPs and other health professionals working with patients to bring about measurable improvements in services and embed new approaches more widely across the health system. 

The project team began working with the Patients’ Forum and GP practices across Milton Keynes to identify areas to improve such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, cardiovascular disease, terminal care, depression. 

Local librarians and the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University held discussions with practices and patients to understand the evidence base for each area of improvement selected. 

The aim is to introduce changes to services which can then be tested, with patients having their say on whether these have made a difference.

Individual practices across Milton Keynes have led on different clinical areas with the aim of sharing their improvements with all of the GP practices involved in the project.