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Biomedical subjects

Mark Ashworth

Publications and source records attributed to Mark Ashworth.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

The relationship between general practice characteristics and quality of care: a national survey of quality indicators used in the UK Quality and Outcomes Framework, 2004-5.

BACKGROUND: The descriptive information now available for primary care in the UK is unique in international terms. Under the 'Quality and Outcomes Framework' (QOF), data for 147 performance indicators are available for each general practice. We aimed to determine the relationship between the quality of primary care, as judged by the total QOF score, social deprivation and practice characteristics. METHODS: We obtained QOF data for each practice in England and linked these with census derived data (deprivation indices and proportion of patients born in a developing country). Characteristics of practices were also obtained. QOF and census data were available for 8480 practices. RESULTS: The median QOF score was 999.7 out of a possible maximum of 1050 points. Three characteristics were independently associated with higher QOF scores: training practices, group practices and practices in less socially deprived areas. In a regression model, these three factors explained 14.6% of the variation in QOF score. Higher list sizes per GP, turnover of registered patients, chronic disease prevalence, proportions of elderly patients or patients born in a developing country did not contribute to lower QOF scores in the final model. CONCLUSION: Socially deprived areas experience a lower quality of primary care, as judged by QOF scores. Social deprivation itself is an independent predictor of lower quality. Training and group practices are independent predictors of higher quality but these types of practices are less well represented in socially deprived areas.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Which general practices have higher list inflation? An exploratory study.

BACKGROUND: There is a 7% discrepancy between English population estimates based on census figures and those based on the registered lists of GPs. GP income under the 2004 new contract will be based on registered patient populations but a national 'de-ghosting' exercise will ensue, aiming to eliminate list inflation. OBJECTIVE: To derive an estimate of the variation in list inflation between individual general practices. METHODS: Letters were sent to all men aged 20-29 years and registered at practices based in three inner city Primary Care Trusts (n = 42 712). Non respondents received one further reminder. Cards were issued to each GP listing non responders. Patients were deducted from the GP list after six months if the GP did not verify the address. RESULTS: 42 712 letters were sent. 33.5% of registered patients were eventually deducted from the GP list (deduction figures only available for 20-24 year old group). Practice level deduction rates ranged from 7-76%. Practices with higher deduction rates achieved lower vaccination rates for 2 year olds (Pearson's r = 20.25; P = 0.005) and cervical smear rates (Pearson's r = 20.18; P = 0.04); they also had cheaper prescribing costs per ASTRO-PU (Pearson's r = 20.20; P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: If these findings apply to the whole registered population, the national de-ghosting exercise is likely to result in large changes to the list size of some practices. Without correcting for list inflation, primary care research based on patient list size as the denominator may underestimate various measures of GP activity, particularly in deprived inner city areas. Resource allocation is also likely to be distorted by differences in list inflation.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Accuracy of the pressure scale of sphygmomanometers in clinical use within primary care.

BACKGROUND: It is widely recommended that sphygmomanometers are maintained and calibrated regularly to ensure that the pressure scale remains accurate to within the European Standard specification of +/-3 mmHg. In primary care, however, such checks are reported to be only rarely performed. This paper describes a survey of the accuracy of the absolute static pressure scale of aneroid, mercury and automated sphygmomanometers in clinical use in primary care. METHODS: On-site measurements of sphygmomanometer pressure scale accuracy were carried out in 45 general practices within Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham. A total of 279 sphygmomanometers from these practices were included in the study. The device pressure scales were calibrated using an accurate electronic reference pressure sensor. RESULTS: The key finding of this study is that 17.9% (50 out of 279) of all surveyed devices gave errors exceeding the +/-3 mmHg threshold. Of these, 53.2% (33 out of 62) of aneroid devices were found to be reading in error by more than +/-3 mmHg compared with 7.8% (16 out of 217) of the combined population of mercury and automated devices. The difference between these groups is statistically significant (P=0.002). Significant differences in the performance of specific models of aneroid, mercury and automated devices were also identified. CONCLUSION: A service model for improving the accuracy of blood pressure monitoring in primary care needs to take into account the current proliferation of pressure scale errors in these devices, the lack of uptake of regular checks and the poor quality of some of the devices currently in use.

Blood Pressure Determination↗
PubMed2005

Variations in antibiotic prescribing and consultation rates for acute respiratory infection in UK general practices 1995-2000.

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic prescribing by GPs in the UK has declined since 1995. AIM: We investigated whether general practices that issue fewer antibiotic prescriptions to patients presenting with acute respiratory infections had lower consultation rates for these conditions. DESIGN OF STUDY: Retrospective data analysis. SETTING: UK general practice. METHOD: We analysed data from the General Practice Research Database, including all registered patients from 108 practices between 1995 and 2000. For each practice, numbers of consultations for acute respiratory tract infections and the proportion of consultations resulting in an antibiotic prescription were obtained. An age- and sex-standardised consultation ratio (SCR) and standardised prescription ratio (SPR) were calculated for each practice. We evaluated whether SPR and SCR values were associated. RESULTS: For the mid-year data (1997), the crude consultation rate for all acute respiratory infections ranged from 125-1,110 per 1,000 registered patients at different practices; the proportion of consultations with antibiotics prescribed ranged from 45-98%. After standardising for varying age and sex structure of practice populations, practices with lower SPR values had lower SCR values (r = 0.41; P<0.001). This association was observed in each study year. Moreover, practices that demonstrated reductions in SPR between 1995 and 2000 also showed reductions in SCR (r = 0.27; P = 0.005). CONCLUSION: Practices that prescribe antibiotics to a smaller proportion of patients presenting with acute respiratory infections have lower consultation rates for these conditions. Practices that succeed, over time, in reducing antibiotic prescribing also experience reductions in consultation rates for these conditions. Although our methodology cannot prove that these two findings are causally related, they imply that patients alter their illness behaviour and that this may be a response to previous consultation experience. In consequence, respiratory illness in the community may be undergoing a process of de-medicalisation.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed2004

How are primary care organizations using financial incentives to influence prescribing?

METHODS: Primary care organizations (PCOs) in England are required to run a prescribing incentive scheme. The average payment received by general practitioners (GPs) under these schemes is not known. We conducted a longitudinal (2 year) questionnaire study of all PCOs in London and the south east of England aiming to explore the relationship between the financial incentives, the selection of prescribing indicators and success at remaining within budget. In the second year, the average reward per GP amounted to 1220 pounds (range 470 pounds-4330 pounds). Underspent PCOs made larger incentive scheme payments to their practices as did PCOs that had successfully overturned a first year overspend into a second year underspend. The size of rewards was unrelated to the selection of any particular cost- or quality-based prescribing indicator. We conclude that larger prescribing incentive scheme payments may have contributed to prescribing cost control but their effect on prescribing quality is uncertain.

Budgets↗
PubMed2004

Why has antibiotic prescribing for respiratory illness declined in primary care? A longitudinal study using the General Practice Research Database.

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic prescribing by general practitioners (GPs) increased in the 1980s and peaked in 1995. Prescribing volumes subsequently fell by over a quarter between 1995 and 2000, mostly accounted for by reduced antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory illnesses. We aimed to investigate changes in consultation rates and the proportion of consultations with antibiotics prescribed for different types of respiratory tract infections. METHODS: Data were derived from 108 UK general practices, covering a mean of 642,685 patients, reporting data to the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) continuously between 1994 and 2000. OUTCOME MEASURES: annual age- and sex-standardized consultation rates for 11 different acute respiratory infections per 1000 registered patients and proportions of these consultations resulting in an antibiotic prescription. RESULTS: The standardized consultation rate for 'any respiratory infection' declined by 35 per cent from 422 to 273 per 1000 registered patients, per year. The largest relative reductions in consultation rates were observed for 'common cold' (50 per cent), 'laryngitis' (43 per cent) and 'sore throat' (43 per cent). The standardized proportion of consultations that resulted in an antibiotic prescription for 'any respiratory infection' declined from 79 per cent in 1994 to 67 per cent in 2000. The largest relative reductions in antibiotic prescribing rates occurred in patients recorded as suffering from 'influenza' (52 per cent), 'upper respiratory tract infections' (33 per cent) and 'laryngitis' (30 per cent). Overall, antibiotic prescriptions for all acute respiratory infections declined by 45 per cent. CONCLUSION: The reduction in antibiotic prescribing in common respiratory infections between 1994 and 2000 has occurred partly because GPs are prescribing antibiotics less frequently when patients consult but mainly because there are fewer consultations with these conditions. Further work should aim to understand the reasons for the decline in consultations for respiratory infections and whether further reductions in antibiotic prescribing are feasible.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed2003

Perceptions of psychological content in the GP consultation--the role of practice, personal and prescribing attributes.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between the characteristics of general practices and the perceptions of the psychological content of consultations by GPs in those practices. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of all GPs (22 GPs based in nine practices) serving a discrete inner city community of 41 000 residents. GPs were asked to complete a log-diary over a period of five working days, rating their perception of the psychological content of each consultation on a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from 0 (no psychological content) to 3 (entirely psychological in content). The influence of GP and practice characteristics on psychological content scores was examined. RESULTS: Data were available for every surgery-based consultation (n = 2206) conducted by all 22 participating GPs over the study period. The mean psychological content score was 0.58 (SD 0.33). Sixty-four percent of consultations were recorded as being without any psychological content; 6% were entirely psychological in content. Higher psychological content scores were significantly associated with younger GPs, training practices (n = 3), group practices (n = 4), the presence of on-site mental health workers (n = 5), higher antidepressant prescribing volumes and the achievement of vaccine and smear targets. Training status had the greatest predictive power, explaining 51% of the variation in psychological content. Neither practice consultation rates, GP list size, annual psychiatric referral rates nor volumes of benzodiazepine prescribing were related to psychological content scores. CONCLUSION: Increased awareness by GPs of the psychological dimension within a consultation may be a feature of the educational environment of training practices.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

The development of prescribing incentive schemes in primary care: a longitudinal survey.

Primary Care Groups and Trusts in England (Primary Care Organisations, or PCOs) are required to operate a prescribing incentive scheme. Little is known about their development since their inception in 1999. We surveyed incentive schemes in London and the South-East NHS Regions in the two consecutive years since 1999. Most of the changes to the incentives and prescribing indicators favoured improvements in prescribing quality, rather than cost control. Quality improvements may be hampered in those PCOs offering financial rewards to underspent general practices that fail to achieve any prescribing quality targets.

Cost Control↗
PubMed2003

Partnership effects in general practice: identification of clustering using intra-class correlation coefficients.

Although most United Kingdom general practitioners (GPs) work together in a shared professional arrangement termed 'partnership', little is known about the nature of such partnerships. We report the results of a survey of 61 general practice partners in 15 group practices and their attitudes to prescribing and managerial issues related to participation in a commissioning group. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to explore how these individually held attitudes clustered within groups. The low ICCs found for attitudes relating to prescribing issues suggested that GPs acted individually in this respect, while, in contrast, responses to managerial questions clustered strongly in partnerships, implying that managerial attitudes were more likely to be shared within partnerships. The ICC statistic is a useful tool for exploring homogeneity and heterogeneity within general practice partnerships.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2002

Satisfaction with respite care: a pilot study.

Satisfaction with respite care may be bound up with a variety of factors. The interaction of social support with ratings of a carer's satisfaction with respite care has not been explored in published work. The present authors postulated that social support, both during caring and during periods of relief from caring whilst in receipt of respite care, would be associated with greater satisfaction with respite care. They embarked upon a pilot study of carers who were looking after dependants with dementia, a particularly demanding form of care. Previously validated scales were used for determining levels of social support, and for assessing possible confounding factors such as carer depression or strain. One hundred and forty carers were contacted, but only 26 completed the questionnaires. In terms of perceived benefit to the carer, satisfaction was high (rating scale = 1-7, mean = 5.8, mode = 7) and correlated significantly with the numbers of people in the social support network (r = 0.57, P = 0.002), albeit not with any of the four measured types of support which they may have provided. Carer satisfaction was not significantly correlated with carer strain nor depression scores. Regression analysis demonstrated that 17% of the variance in this satisfaction score was accounted for by the numbers in the social support network. Other factors did not significantly explain the observed variation.

Caregivers↗
PubMed2002

Demand, appropriateness and prescribing of 'lifestyle drugs': a consultation survey in general practice.

BACKGROUND: The simultaneous launch of orlistat and sildenafil in 1998 provoked much media attention, particularly around the role of lifestyle drugs and their potential costs if controls were not established. Fears were also expressed that primary care would be overwhelmed by demand, and little information was available about the attitude of GPs to their new role as prescribers of lifestlye drugs. Partly in response to these concerns, tight prescribing guidelines and licensed indications, for sildenafil and orlistat, respectively, were issued. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to describe levels of demand for orlistat and sildenafil in general practice, whether this demand was translated into a prescription, adherence to prescribing guidelines/licensed indications and the GP perception of appropriateness of an NHS prescription for either of these drugs. METHOD: We carried out an observational study in primary care conducted over a 6-week period during 1999. Twenty-seven GPs were recruited, each from a different practice. All GP consultations were recorded for the study period and the GP completed a structured questionnaire each time sildenafil or orlistat were discussed in a consultation. RESULTS: Sildenafil was discussed in 0.5% (68/13 394) of consultations and orlistat in 0.3% (42/13 394). GPs thought that a corresponding NHS prescription would be highly appropriate in 57 and 74% of cases, respectively, although for both lifestyle drugs, nearly 20% of GPs thought such prescriptions were inappropriate. An NHS prescription was issued in 43% of consultations in which sildenafil had been discussed and 33% in which orlistat had been discussed. Five out of 29 NHS sildenafil prescriptions were issued to patients failing to fulfil the requirements of prescribing guidelines; similarly, one out of 14 orlistat prescriptions fell outside licensed indications. There were four examples of NHS prescriptions for sildenafil which were given even when the GP thought the drug to be inappropriate, whereas orlistat was never given when the GP thought it inappropriate. CONCLUSIONS: Levels of demand for the two lifestyle drugs, sildenafil and orlistat, were modest when compared with earlier media predictions. Neither was there evidence that GP was pitted against patient in their negotiation concerning a lifestyle drug NHS prescription since most GPs agreed with their patients that such a prescription was appropriate. Prescribing guidelines and licensed indications were generally adhered to, but the modest level of demand raises questions about expanding the guidelines for sildenafil.

Anti-Obesity Agents↗
PubMed2002

Psychiatric referral rates and the influence of on-site mental health workers in general practice.

Psychiatric referral rates vary widely between different general practices. To increase our understanding of this variation, we conducted a one-year prospective observational study of outpatient psychiatric referrals made by all general practices (622 referrals from 29 practices) within the catchment area of one inner-city psychiatric service. Contrary to our hypothesis, practices with higher allocations of on-site mental health workers did not have lower psychiatric referral rates. On the other hand, the highest referring practices had lower mental health worker allocations suggesting a possible influence upon referrals in this subgroup. A wide range of quantitative variables explained very little of the referral rate variation, implying that more subjective factors, such as general practitioner attitudes, may be influential in the decision to refer a patient to the psychiatrist.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

'Time and space': carers' views about respite care.

The needs of carers have become more visible since the Carers Recognition & Service Act (1995). Although the demand for respite care is apparent it has proven much harder to establish its precise benefits using quantitative analysis. Some studies have shown no benefit at all to carers and the only clear benefit to emerge from more elaborate randomized controlled trials is a modest reduction in caregiver distress. Quantitative instruments may miss some of the benefits. We embarked on a qualitative study to determine what carers themselves said about the benefits or otherwise of respite care. Twenty-three carers were interviewed about their experiences of respite care and qualitative themes were derived from the transcripts of these semi-structured interviews. Caring was conceptualized in terms of costs (physical exhaustion, feelings of despair, lack of recognition and financial losses) and benefits (a sense of closeness to the dependant and enhanced self-esteem). Respite care emerged as a service that offered 'normality' and 'freedom' to the carer. Conversely, it was also perceived in critical terms if there was any shortfall between the quality of professional care compared to their own informal care. However high the quality of respite care, there was the uncomfortable realization by many that this care might be viewed as a signal to the patient, the family and the local community that they were no longer able to cope. Respite care was perceived as a service which, on balance, facilitated informal care and enabled care to continue at home for longer than would otherwise have been possible. The particular component of this service that was most valued was the option of a home-sitting service.

Journal Article↗