NHS England commissioned the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to conduct a review of the 2011 Good Practice Guidelines (GPGv5) and assess the appropriate steps required to ensure an aligned national approach which is fit for purpose in 2020 and the coming years.
The challenge
The review highlighted the need for a revision to meet the new and emerging digital technology used in the Primary Care landscape. The programme was high profile as it had to be endorsed by the BMA and reviewed by JGPIT & RCGP, then
finally signed off by the NHSE CEO’s office.
NECS was responsible for leading the strategic development of NHSE’s Good Practice Guidelines, spearheading a high-impact
commission to deliver the fifth iteration of this critical framework. NECS orchestrated end-to-end programme management, overseeing a multi-disciplinary team of 20 NHS England subject matter experts (SMEs).
Key responsibilities included:
- Cultivating strategic relationships with senior healthcare stakeholders to align priorities and foster collaboration.
- Recruiting and coordinating a panel of SMEs to ensure robust clinical and operational expertise.
- Providing end-to-end oversight of content development, peer review and publication processes.
- Implementing comprehensive risk management strategies to assess, prioritise, and mitigate potential challenges.
- Delivering regular progress reports and executive briefings to NHS senior leadership, ensuring transparency and alignment.
Our response
NECS established comprehensive governance, employing and managing contracts for all third-party participants in the program, and supporting the authoring teams with the production of guidance. Throughout the program, we delivered content, incorporating user feedback and comments. We designed a knowledge base that included 12 themes with 71 topics identified at the start, with gaps addressed during the program.
The project was run as an Agile initiative, with themes prioritised and ordered continuously. We also designed and delivered a Request for Change process, as well as a Business As Usual (BAU) handover to NHS England.
- Content Approval Forms are required at the start of each topic.
- Research and evidence will create scoping review to aid authoring team ready to start topic.
- Kick off meeting with authoring team – templates, author guidance, process, research and any documentation currently available.
- Support will be offered where needed, for example; additional research or authoring support.
- Editor review puts article into standard format and plain English.
- BMA and JGPIT comment/endorse the final document before it goes through the NHSE sign off gateway process.
- It will be published on the NHSE website and reviewed after live date.
Outcomes
NECS was responsible for delivering key digital information across a suite of Theme and Topics which covered standards, products and pathways, etc. The role was both operational and strategic, working on establishing a community of Subject Matter Experts across the NHS to update the information on this programme to improve Primary Care. We developed our individual and collective knowledge, provided peer support and promoted a culture of continuous improvement.
Following the successful delivery of GPGv5, we designed and implemented structured frameworks for transitioning the guidelines into BAU operations. This included scoping scaleable solutions, creating detailed implementation roadmaps and establishing governance processes to ensure long-term adoption across the NHS.
“The Good Practice Guidelines for GP Electronic Patient Records (GPGv5) have been instrumental in standardising and enhancing the management of electronic patient records across GP practices. These contractually endorsed guidelines ensure that best practices are followed, improving data security, interoperability and the overall quality of patient care.”