ArticleBJGP open2025
What's been tried: a curated catalogue of efforts to improve access to general practice.
Article in BJGP open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- A scoping review of how the candidacy framework has been used in research on access to general practice.Journal of health services research & policy · 2026Article
- Access to general practice appointments and sustainable change: a focused ethnographic case study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- What's been tried: a curated catalogue of efforts to improve access to general practice.BJGP open · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough increasing numbers of appointments are being provided, public satisfaction with access to UK general practice is declining. Previous attempts to improve access have not been systematically collated.
aimTo identify interventions to improve access to general practice in the UK, to organise these interventions into thematic categories, and to identify which aspects of access are targeted. DESIGN &
settingNarrative systematic review.
methodA three-stage search was conducted to identify interventions used to improve access to NHS general practice. Using an iterative process, we generated thematic categories to classify interventions according to how they are intended to work. We assessed which aspects of access they addressed using the seven-feature Candidacy Framework.
resultsThe search identified 449 relevant sources reporting on interventions to improve access to general practice over the period 1984-2023. We generated six overarching thematic categories into which we organised these interventions: appointment innovations; direct patient access to services; increasing the number and range of professionals available in general practice; offering contacts beyond core hours, core settings, and core services; supporting patient engagement; and supporting the wider structures of general practice. We assessed which features of candidacy were addressed, with 'permeability' (the ease with which people can use services) emerging as the most frequent feature.
conclusionMultiple and diverse attempts have been made to improve access in general practice over a 40-year period. This curated, thematised catalogue offers an important resource for future efforts to improve access.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.