The general medical services provided by GPs are defined under the General Medical Services Contract. These services are mainly split into three groups: essential, additional and enhanced which are briefly described below. You can also visit your GP practice simply for reassurance if you have particular worries or concerns.
All practices must provide essential services for people who have health conditions from which they are expected to recover, chronic disease management and general management of terminally ill patients.
The core services provided include:
Practices are expected to provide additional services but can choose not to. Additional services include:
Enhanced services are essential or additional services that are delivered to a higher standard, or extra, more specialised services. Specialised services can cover health issues such as substance misuse, depression or multiple sclerosis or particular groups such as the terminally ill, the homeless, immigrants, violent patients and those with learning disabilities. Enhanced services can include:
Some practices can also offer other, complementary services. Whilst these services do vary between practices, they can include:
A GP practice can also offer a number of non-NHS services which are generally paid for by the patient or their company. These services can include:
The NHS Health Check is a free midlife MOT. For adults aged 40-74 without a pre-existing condition, it checks your circulatory and vascular health and what your risk of getting a disabling vascular disease is.
Click here to find out more about the NHS Health Check
The NHS also offers a range of screening tests to different sections of the population. Screening is a way of identifying apparently healthy people who may have an increased risk of a particular condition. There are three national cancer screening programmes available through the NHS: breast, bowel and cervical. It may be useful to know that in many cases, cancer screening is done to help prevent the disease, as well as being useful for early detection.
Cllick here to find our more about NHS Health Screens
Source: It’s Your Practice: A patient guide to GP services, Royal College of General Practitioners, July 2011
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