The GP Clinical Evidence Fellowship is now in its third year. This is a collaboration between the West of England AHSN and Health Education England (HEE) and has recruited 16 GPs in total across the seven clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in the West of England.
The GP Clinical Evidence Fellows (CEFs) support the development of a culture of evidence-led best practice across the health and care community, working at the heart of clinical commissioning, embedding evidence and evaluation into routine activity.
This recent evaluation sets out to define the value of the GP Clinical Evidence Fellow role and areas for improvement for all stakeholders.
Evaluation findings suggest that the CEFs add value to the work of the CCG by bringing in a clinical perspective that was otherwise not available. In addition, it is evident that the role is of value to the individual CEFs and had the potential to influence change in their clinical workplaces.
While challenges are acknowledged, the report demonstrates that the fellows have added value by highlighting the importance of research and the use of evidence as core business, and in some cases have strengthened the relationship between CCGs and the public health teams within local authorities.
“Our successful experience of the scheme…we would certainly support it perpetuating, it’s something we value and the more we can get evidence-based analysis into our bloodstream and the more we can get clinical colleagues involved in that analysis, the better”.
The fellows are having a significant impact on practical decision-making, the culture of using evidence and in finding a new source of potential GP leaders of the future.
The evaluation report features a set of recommendations that include longer term sustainability of the CEF role and increasing capability and capacity to reduce the workload burden.
Download the summary report here
Posted on August 8, 2017
