Date: November 16, 2007 (Friday)
Time: 12:30 – 14:00 (sandwich lunch from 12:30 –12:45; seminar begins at 12:45)
Venue: Mrs Chen Yang Foo Oi Telemedicine Centre, 2/F, William MW Mong Block, Faculty of Medicine Building, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

Abstract:
Recent political and organisational changes in the UK National Health Service have created different, and shifting contexts for the delivery of health care. Most interest has, however, been paid to the developing market reforms in England incorporating patient choice, Choose and Book, payment by results, foundation trust status, developing a provider market and practice based purchasing (PbC). While PbC has similarities with previous approaches to primary care led commissioning and is likely to bring far reaching changes to the way practices work it is the introduction of the new GMS contract that has had the greatest impact on general practice and continues to have the greatest potential for change – especially when combined with other changes in the English NHS. The new contract also offers a unique experiment in the use of incentives to reward quality. Of key interest is the fact that the GMS contract involves a quality reward system – the Quality and Outcomes Framework that provides financial rewards to general practices based on a points system of over 150 quality indicators covering clinical, organisational and patient focused aspects of practice. Introduced to improve general practice quality the framework has generated much debate in the UK and wider international interest. This seminar will examine the impact of the new GMS contract on general practice and the future development of general practice. In particular it will highlight key implications for practice and draw lessons on the use of payment performance systems in primary care.

Bio-sketch:
Stephen Peckham is Senior Lecturer in Health Services Delivery and Organisation at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Academic Director of the NIHR Service Delivery and Organisation Research programme. He worked in UK’s government for a number of years before undertaking his degree and Masters courses in public and social policy and policy analysis. He was Head of Sociology and Social Policy at Oxford Brookes University from 1999 to 2005 and before this worked at the University of Southampton and in the voluntary sector. His main research interests are in health policy analysis, primary care, public health, health care organisation and patient and public engagement. Current research includes policy analysis research on patient choice and recent government policy on expanding community health services, the impact of performance payment systems of public health in primary care, commissioning and public health and organisational performance. He has written widely on primary care and public health with key texts on primary care policy, public involvement and social policy.

Registration:
For registration and enquiries, please call Ms Maggie Cheuk at 2819-2841 or email mhrn@hkusua.hku.hk