Francis Group: UK Joint Venture to Support General Practice

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has appointed Shaping Health International as sole distributor of its Productive General Practice programme in the former SHA regions of North-West, North-East and Yorkshire and Humber, and in the South-East Coast region. The programme is designed to help general practice continue to deliver high quality care whilst meeting increasing levels of demand and diverse expectations.

Shaping Health International is a joint venture between UK company Entrusted Group, and Francis Group International, whose subsidiary has been operating in the UK health market since 2007.

With many years’ experience in the NHS and in the health system in New Zealand, the Directors of the new joint venture are ideally placed to work with GP Practices to help them work on their efficiency and effectiveness, with the ultimate aim of better patient care in the Primary Sector.

Productive General Practice, is the latest programme from the NHS Institute’s world-renowned Productive Series. It takes proven approaches used in other areas of healthcare and the worlds of engineering and design and adapts them to the General Practice environment. Co-developed with frontline general practice staff, including GPs, practice managers, practice nurses, receptionists and other staff, the programme empowers the whole practice enhancing quality of care, increasing safety and works to better meet the needs of the local population.

Test sites who have implemented the programme have seen the following benefits:

• extra nursing capacity identified, providing extra capacity worth £11,232


• more accurate staff planning resulted in the cancellation of planned appointment of staff – avoiding £15,000 of staff expenditure year on year


• time taken to retrieve prescriptions requests reduced by 82%, releasing 12.5 hours of staff time per week


• turnaround time for medical reports reduced by 43%


• 57% reduction in blood test resource costs


• 82% reduction in nurse sickness and absence.

Francis Group International Chairman, Stuart Francis, says that the company is delighted to partner with Entrusted Group to work with General Practices on this programme. ‘We know that Productive General Practice can deliver real benefits to practices and to their patients,’ he says, ‘and we welcome the opportunity to be part of this high-quality initiative.’

ENDS

© Scoop Media