Improvements in clinical diabetes care in the first year of the new General Medical Services contract in the UK

Abstract

The prevalence of diabetes and the cost of providing services will increase dramatically over the next ten years. There is a wide consensus that the way forward is for primary care to provide more care to higher clinical standards. The new General Medical Services contract (GMS2) offers incentives to achieve diabetes management targets. We compared the performances of health centres in North Warwickshire in the pre-contract year 2004 and post-contract in 2005. The audit tool comprised the GMS2 quality indicators in Alphabet Strategy format. There were statistically significant improvements in performance against almost all the quality indicators. We conclude with some reservations that GMS2 has considerably improved the quality of diabetes care in our locality.

Keywords

Alphabet Strategy General Medical Services contract Quality and Outcomes Framework.

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