What do general practitioners need from perioperative medicine teams?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative study of the experiences of primary care practitioners when caring for surgical patients, and what they need from perioperative medicine teams to improve care
IRAS ID
197941
Contact name
S. Ramani Moonesinghe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2015/11/21, Data Protection Registration
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 19 days
Research summary
General practitioners (GPs) in the UK NHS act both as gatekeepers and as conduits for patient referral to specialist services. Patients are referred to specialist services when diagnostic and therapeutic options in primary care are exhausted.GPs are key to identifying fitness for surgery, and timely investigations and interventions may improve surgical outcomes. Major non-cardiac surgery has substantially higher mortality rates than for cardiac surgery, even for elective procedures. A subgroup of high-risk general surgical patients accounts for 15% of surgical procedures, but over 80% of post-operative deaths. In addition, patients in UK undergoing major non-cardiac surgery have mortality rates four times higher than patients in the USA. An even greater number of general surgical patients suffer from perioperative complications, which may have long-lasting effects on life expectancy. Several national reports have highlighted deficiencies in current models of care, particularly during preoperative planning.
In this study, we will interview GPs to investigate their views on the interaction between primary care (GPs) and secondary care (hospitals) when caring for the general surgical patient, with particular reference to patients which may be at high risk of postoperative complications.
REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A