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Learning from four years of collaborative access work in Australia

Andrew W Knight

Background Through the three years of the first phase of the Australian Primary Care Collaborative there was considerable adaptation of the work to improve access translated from the UK to the Australian environment. Changes in four areas are described. Methods and results Measures: ‘third available appointment’ was retained as a measure of delay. A patient satisfaction survey was revised and a new measure added looking at unmet demand. Team: requests from practices resulted in the production of a set of ‘team principles’ designed to help practices build capacity for improvement in their teams. Name: the name of the topic seemed to be a barrier for some practices. After much thought, the name of the improvement topic was changed from ‘Better Access’ to ‘Access and Care Redesign’. The product: the content of the access topic was revised. Change ideas were divided into ‘foundation work’, which all practices were expected to do to improve access to care for patients. Once this was completed, practices were encouraged to select a ‘pathway’ which best suited their situation. Conclusion Four possible changes are offered for consideration to those planning to do access work with general practices based on the learning from the Australian Primary Care Collaborative.

Quality in Primary Care

Volume:17 Issue:1