ABSTRACT

Each part of the system tends to focus on its own tasks and resources. The roles of improving the quality of interaction, cooperation and communication across the interface is not seen as any one person's or organisation's particular responsibility. The working party identified 10 areas to improve on in the interface between primary and secondary care: leadership, shared care approaches, consensus on task division, mutual guidelines, patient perspective, informatics, education, team building, monitoring quality in clinical work, and cost-effectiveness. The technical improvements in the primary/secondary interface are: Patient Pathways, NHS Scotland; Information to GPs from the North East Essex clinical website; Software connecting hospital pathology results to GP records; and Software allowing other clinicians to access GP records.