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  2. Quality improvement reports for GPs

Quality improvement reports for GPs

Confidential reports designed to help GPs improve the quality of their prescribing and patient safety are available for practices that contribute to CPRD.

CPRD and the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) have developed confidential bespoke practice and patient-level drug prescribing reports, available for free for GP practices contributing to CPRD.

The reports provide a list of pseudonymised patients at the practice so that GPs can re-identify and review their care plans. Reports also show the practice’s prescription rate benchmarked against other participating GP practices. Each report covers a selection of safety indicators. Each report covers a selection of safety indicators and enable collection of evidence for annual appraisals under Domain 2 (Safety and Quality).

Patient safety and prescribing in patients with a learning disability, autism or both

Managing the prescription of psychotropic medication for adults with learning disabilities, autism, or both in order to minimise potential negative impacts is a challenging process for primary care. In order to support GPs and primary care pharmacists with this, reports sent to contributing practices in January 2019 include the following indicators:

  • Long-term prescription of anti-psychotics to patients with learning disabilities, autism or both
  • Long-term prescription of anti-depressants to patients with learning disabilities, autism or both

These indicators are based on NHS England's Stopping Over-Medication of People with a Learning Disability, Autism or Both (STOMP) project, which aims to improve the quality of life of people with a learning disability, autism or both by reducing the potential harm of inappropriate psychotropic drugs.

For each of the indicators, the reports:

  • Show how the practice’s prescription rate compares with peers
  • Allow GPs to re-identify patients whose treatment may need review
  • Provide support material that summarises STOMP and NICE guidance

Below you can view an example report, created using sample data.

Heart and circulatory system reports 

The heart and circulatory system report includes three indicators taken from the RCGP patient safety toolkit and one that was suggested by NICE:

  • Prescription of glitazones to patients with heart failure
  • Prescription of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to patients with heart failure
  • Prescription of NSAIDs to patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD)
  • Aspirin monotherapy for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation

The latest heart and circulatory system reports are being sent to contributing practices from summer 2019.

Below you can view an example report, created using sample data.

GPs are invited to take an active role in suggesting topics for future reports.

Dr Tommy Hunter has written about how he has used the report at his own practice. Unlike much of the performance measurement information that a practice receives, this report is for practice-use only and not in the public domain.

On the RCGP website you can view videos by Dr Scott Jamieson, RCGP Scotland Quality Improvement lead, providing an overview of the data reports and how they can be used by practices. 

To receive the reports, practices must first join CPRD. 

Quote from Dr, Scotland saying As well as helping me to improve patient care, the reports have given me useful evidence to use as part of my revalidationQuote from Dr J, South West Peninsula saying A helpful process for audit and patient careQuote from Dr S, Scotland saying Helpful to share with my colleagues Quote from Dr O, Kent, Surrey and Sussex saying It reiterates and updates good clinical practice


Further information

For more information about the new reports, contact the RCGP lead for this project, David Mullett at david.mullett@rcgp.org.uk.

[Page last reviewed 8 August 2019]