European Society for Quality and Safety in General Practice (EQuiP) announces new sustainability toolkit for General Practice from the Irish College of General Practitioners. 

EQuiP Dublin meeting publishes lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for General Practice. 

(embargo 4pm Friday 12th May 2023)

The European Society for Quality and Safety in General Practice, at its 62nd meeting in Dublin this weekend, has launched the ICGP Glas Toolkit today (12th May). 

The Glas Toolkit is authored by the ICGP Planetary Health & Sustainability Working Group, who are Irish GPs and members of the European Society (EQuiP). 

EQUIP https://conference.qualityfamilymatters.eu aims to improve the quality of healthcare for all patients in general practice in Europe through sharing methods and projects to improve outcomes. 

GP Dr Seán Owens, Chair of the ICGP Working Group, said: “The new toolkit lists a menu of ways GPs and patients can work together to improve health outcomes such as lifestyle health promotion and prevention of disease, smoking cessation and breastfeeding, sensible antibiotic use, and encouraging patients to tell GPs when they have enough of, or no longer need to use, certain prescribed medications, for example antacids and painkillers. It also encourages general practices to share ways to improve efficient use of resources, such as energy, plastic, and paper use in practices.” 

The Glas Toolkit is available here  

The EQuiP meeting  https://www.qualityfamilymedicine.eu/ published its Position Paper on lessons learned for primary care from the COVID-19 pandemic, with 8 recommendations for improving and developing strategies for future crises. EQuiP is the WONCA Europe Network for Quality and Safety in Family Medicine. 

The paper was based on a survey of 5,500 GP practices across Europe, carried out by 45 research institutions in collaboration with EQuiP. 

The 8 recommendations include: 

  • Anchor the steps taken in patient safety in primary care during the pandemic. 
  • Encourage GP practices to adopt multidisciplinary models of care. 
  • Invest in training practices as they are levers for quality in primary care practices. 
  • Create circumstances that prioritize workforce well-being. 
  • Stimulate the international exchange of knowledge and experience amongst healthcare professionals and policymakers. 

GP Dr Andrée Rochfort, President of EQuiP, said: “GPs played a central role in the health service response to the pandemic. The pandemic proved that even in crisis situations, the majority of patients’ health issues are managed outside the hospitals – health problems right across the range of human health issues, and not just respiratory problems. 

GP practices are still experiencing high workload volumes and workforce shortages which were worsened by the pandemic but preceded it. 

EQuiP urges governments and policy makers to include GP representative organisations in future health service planning, including for future crises and pandemics.”  ENDS 

ISSUED BY: Aileen O’Meara, Communications Consultant, Irish College of General Practitioners.    

Tel. 087 2239830. Email: media@icgp.ie  PHOTOS AND MEDIA INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.