Spy Equipment To Be Used To Check Up On GPs

GP practices in Birmingham are going to have to be on their very best behaviour over the next few months as it has been announced that spy equipment is going to be used to keep an eye on their performance.

NHS Heart of Birmingham has come up with the idea of incorporating mystery shopper-style regulation on practices in its area of jurisdiction. They hope that the use of surveillance equipment will spur practices on to provide excellent standards of service for their patients.

Critics have suggested that the scheme is something of cynical move by managers to target practices unfairly, when they should be focusing on other areas.

However, Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT hold that the scheme is in place to make sure that patients in the Birmingham area are delivered the service they deserve. They deny that the scheme will be used for negative purposes of outing practices that don’t perform well under surveillance equipment.

A spokesperson for the PCT said that:

[The venture] is designed to improve the patient experience at all levels, from initial contact with the surgery, their visit to the surgery and the whole patient pathway. It’s a positive scheme that, if shown to be successful, will be rolled out across the PCT.

Spy equipment including surveillance recording gear and video technology will be used to put the practices under scrutiny.

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