Implementing Shared Medical Appointments in Primary Care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Qualitative Exploration of the Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Shared Medical Appointments in Primary Care
IRAS ID
262964
Contact name
Eileen Kaner
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Shared Medical Appointments (from here referred to as SMAs) have been promoted as a new consultation type in the “10 High Impact Actions to release time to care” following a report by the NHS Alliance (Clay and Stern, 2015). SMAs are a group consultation which includes a 1:1 appointment for each person attending the group from a General Practitioner or other primary healthcare professional (e.g. Practice nurse, Pharmacist). They take place within a 60-90 minute group session for people with the same health condition or problem, or who are at risk of the same health condition or problem.
Within the North East and Cumbria there have been local initiatives encouraging the use of SMAs for chronic disease management, which have primarily taken the form of training for a range of practice staff. While a number of practices where practitioners have been trained have taken up using SMAs (to varying degrees), others have not. As SMAs are a relatively new model of care, little is still known about the perceived barriers and facilitators to their use. The project aims to explore relevant patient and practitioner views about the use of SMAs in primary care across the North East and North Cumbria to better understand barriers and facilitators to their implementation. The work will inform the development of SMA work in the future.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/NE/0241
Date of REC Opinion
16 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion