TY - JOUR

T1 - Delivering a national programme of anticipatory care in primary care

T2 - a qualitative study

AU - Wang, Yingying

PY - 2012/4/1

Y1 - 2012/4/1

N2 - Background Primary prevention often occurs against a background of inequalities in health and health care. Addressing this requires practitioners and systems to acknowledge the contribution of health-related and social determinants and to deal with the lack of interconnectedness between health and social service providers. Recognising this, the Scottish Government has implemented a national programme of anticipatory care targeting individuals aged 45–64 years living in areas of socioeconomic deprivation and at high risk of cardiovascular disease. This programme is called Keep Well.Aim To explore the issues and tensions underpinning the implementation of a national programme of anticipatory care.Design and setting A qualitative study in five Wave 1 Keep Well pilot sites, located in urban areas of Scotland, and involving 79 general practices.Method Annual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 74 key stakeholders operating at national government level, local pilot level and within general practices, resulting in 118 interviews. Interview transcripts were analysed using the framework approach.Results Four underlying tensions were identified. First, those between a patient-focused general-practice approach versus a population-level health-improvement approach, linking disparate health and social services; secondly, medical approaches versus wider social approaches; thirdly, a population-wide approach versus individual targeting; and finally, reactive versus anticipatory care.Conclusion Implementing an anticipatory care programme to address inequalities in cardiovascular disease identified several tensions, which need to be understood and resolved in order to inform the development of such approaches in general practice and to develop systems that reduce the degree of fragmentation across health and social services.

AB - Background Primary prevention often occurs against a background of inequalities in health and health care. Addressing this requires practitioners and systems to acknowledge the contribution of health-related and social determinants and to deal with the lack of interconnectedness between health and social service providers. Recognising this, the Scottish Government has implemented a national programme of anticipatory care targeting individuals aged 45–64 years living in areas of socioeconomic deprivation and at high risk of cardiovascular disease. This programme is called Keep Well.Aim To explore the issues and tensions underpinning the implementation of a national programme of anticipatory care.Design and setting A qualitative study in five Wave 1 Keep Well pilot sites, located in urban areas of Scotland, and involving 79 general practices.Method Annual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 74 key stakeholders operating at national government level, local pilot level and within general practices, resulting in 118 interviews. Interview transcripts were analysed using the framework approach.Results Four underlying tensions were identified. First, those between a patient-focused general-practice approach versus a population-level health-improvement approach, linking disparate health and social services; secondly, medical approaches versus wider social approaches; thirdly, a population-wide approach versus individual targeting; and finally, reactive versus anticipatory care.Conclusion Implementing an anticipatory care programme to address inequalities in cardiovascular disease identified several tensions, which need to be understood and resolved in order to inform the development of such approaches in general practice and to develop systems that reduce the degree of fragmentation across health and social services.

KW - anticipatory care

KW - cardiovascular diseases

KW - inequalities, health

KW - primary prevention. decision-making

U2 - 10.3399/bjgp12X636137

DO - 10.3399/bjgp12X636137

M3 - Journal article

VL - 62

SP - e288-e296

JO - British Journal of General Practice

JF - British Journal of General Practice

SN - 0960-1643

IS - 597

ER -