GENERAL PRACTICES
| Dr. |
The role of GPs is strategic not only in curing disease or referring to hospital, but also in prevention and screening activities that can avoid the subsequent need for hospitalisation and A&E occurrences.
The most reliable source of information about General Practices is the Quality Management and Analysis System, known as QMAS, a new nationwide system that assign a code to each GP codes. The main purpose of QMAS is to monitor GP activities, assuring that the national standards set by General Medical Services (GMS) contract are achieved.
The payment scheme in the GMS contract follows "a pay by result" policy that rewards GPs according to the quality of service they provide. The data used in the GP map comes from QMAS and were current in April 2006. There are often changes in the total number of GPs because of mergers and closures.
