Carers in Practice - RCGP
In September 2006 The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) launched a two-year partnership designed to improve knowledge and understanding of carers and carers' issues among Primary Care professionals throughout the UK.
The main aim of this initiative is to improve the relationship and communication between Primary Care staff, patients and their carers. Through the provision of information and training for GPs, it also aims to raise awareness of unidentified 'hidden' carers and lead to improvements in the health of carers.
A Good Practice Guide to Highlight the Needs of Carers and Carers’ Health, was launched at the 'Recognising carers: partners in primary care' conference on 29 October 2007. Jointly developed by the RCGP and the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, this self-assessment toolkit is designed so that Primary Care Teams can measure themselves against agreed criteria for the services they provide for patients and their carers, particularly focusing on teamwork and practice organisation. A preview of the guide, which is currently being piloted with GPs surgeries, is available below:
Draft Good Practice Guide to Highlight the Needs of Carers and Carers’ Health (58 KB)
The following two leaflets have also been developed by the partnership and are available to download below. The first is for GPs, the second for carers themselves. Please print off and distribute in your surgery as appropriate:
Carers as Partners (leaflet for GPs) (557 KB) Carers in Practice (leaflet for carers) (642 KB)
Message from Nigel Sparrow, Vice Chair Royal College of General Practitioners
While there is usually much sympathy and concern for a patient, there is often little acknowledgement or appreciation for the person caring for them.
Within time, the stresses of looking after someone day in, day out, make it likely that carers will themselves become patients and increasingly will come to rely on their GP. Currently, caring has an adverse impact on the health of 80 per cent of carers and ten per cent of GP patients are those with caring responsibilities.
As many as 200 patient carers could be registered with each GP practice, so family doctors are ideally placed to contribute towards providing a better deal for carers and ensuring that they and the people they care for receive the highest quality care.
Crucially, doctors need to encourage vulnerable carers to take ownership of their health needs. To do this we need to improve the level of communication between primary care teams and patients who are carers and to standardise this across the 11,000 GP practices in the UK.
With this aim in mind, the RCGP is working with the The Trust in the Carers in Practice partnership.
The partnership has already produced two checklists for carers and GPs, and in October will launch a guide for GP practices with practical advice on how family doctors can best support carers.
The RCGP is delighted to be working with The Princess Royal Trust for Carers on such an important initiative and our members will work vigorously to support the work and needs of the nation’s carers and give them the recognition – and healthcare – they deserve.
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