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About the Out-of-Hours Review The Review In March 2000, John Denham (Minister of State at the Department of Health) commissioned an independent review of GP Out-of-Hours Services. The Terms of Reference for the Review identified a number of issues to be addressed - among others they included exploring a flexible national model which could be implemented locally without compromising standards, developing a robust and transparent accountability framework and professional acceptance of explicit governance processes and an integrated approach including NHS Direct. The team was led by Dr David Carson (at the time, Head of Primary Care Strategy and Performance at East London and the City Health Authority), Dr Ian Trimble (Chair of Nottingham City North and West PCG) and Dr Nicholas Reeves (an historian and part-time Lay Member of the Acton and Central Ealing PCG Board). Academic support for the Review was provided by Dr Valerie Lattimer (MRC Fellow at the University of Southampton). Over the next few months, members of the team visited over 40 organisations (including 21 organised providers of out-of-hours services), and they presented their report – Raising Standards for Patients. New Partnerships in Out-of-Hours Care - in the autumn of 2000. The Implementation Team In October 2000, ministers accepted all the recommendations in the Review and appointed a small team to implement those recommendations, led once again by Dr David Carson, supported in the first instance by Dr Nicholas Reeves and Dr Stephen Shortt. In April 2001 Lyn English joined the team as Project Manager, and the team was further extended to include Keeley Townend (representing NHS Direct) and Pam Bradbury (a nursing officer in primary care at the Department of Health). In the summer of 2002, 13 regional coordinators joined the team to work on secondment (two days a week) in support of the project. They bring with them invaluable first-hand experience in the delivery of out-of-hours services, and work directly with PCTs and organised providers in their area. Most recently, John Taylor has taken responsibility at the Department of Health for policy in this area, and he is supported by Victoria Jamson, David Amor and Justin Hely. The Team is supported by a National Advisory Group, a group that brings together a wide range of stakeholders who offer advice on the developing agenda. The Project In the early months of the project, work concentrated in three major areas, namely: More recently two further areas of work have been identified: All of these different areas of work are identified in separate parts of this website. |
