Improving the quality of general practice services in the UK: surveying the activities of GPs and practice managers (abstract & commentary)*

Improving the quality of general practice services has risen in priority as primary care has taken on an increasingly important role in National Health Service policy. In 2015 the Royal College of General Practitioners issued a guide to quality improvement (RCGP, 2015) and a new on-line resource in early 2017 called Quality Now (http://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/our-programmes/quality-improvement.aspx). However, there has been little research on the levers for improvement and a recent King’s Fund report (The King’s Fund, 2011) was unable to establish the nature and quantity of quality improvement work happening in practices. This is the first study of both General Practitioners and practice managers, across the UK, which looks at the range of improvement work going on, what motivates it, who is involved in this work and the barriers and facilitators practices face. It is important to understand these issues in order to focus training and better disseminate good practice and innovation across different countries