Patient-Centred Care in the 21st Century Our response to the Royal College of General Practitioners inquiry

There is a growing body of evidence that supporting patients with long-term conditions to manage their own health and healthcare can improve clinical outcomes and has the potential to lead to more cost-effective use of services.

Based on this evidence, and learning from our improvement programmes (including Closing the Gap through changing relationships, Magic and Co-creating Health) our response argues that the NHS should:

• Support patients to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to proactively manage their condition and make decisions about their care by working in partnership with healthcare professionals. Such a change in relationships would require health professionals to embrace new roles and ways of working.
• Provide targeted interventions so that care and support is tailored to meet people’s needs and takes account of people’s knowledge, skills, confidence, motivation and attitudes people have towards managing their own care.
• Ensure that the quality of healthcare services is measured on outcomes that reflect the patients perspective and what really matters to them.

We also argued for investment to educate and train patients and professionals so that they have the knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to work in partnership with each other.

The RCGP has a key role in driving forward these changes, particularly through the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula as well as through the training and capability of GPs and other professionals working in general practice.

The Health Foundation is funding clinical champions on collaborative care and support planning within the RCGP, which has the ability to provide leadership across general practice at a local and national level. The RCGP is a catalyst for change and we hope the College subscribes to the goal of person-centred care and ensures this underpins its work.