The Map and GP Commissioning

Spanning all care settings, Map of Medicine care maps are the ideal starting point for defining and communicating services and can be customised to reflect local needs.

Map of Medicine pathways deliver clarity on the evidence base. Map of Medicine care maps are based on over 170 sources of guidance, one of which is NICE, to describe a complete clinical pathway. All sources are quality-assured by the Map. The Map also goes beyond the evidence to include practice-based knowledge from those with front-line clinical experience. No other care maps aggregate knowledge in such a comprehensive manner.

The Map supports GPs in decisions about local services planning through the provision of best practice information. It enables customisation by local groups wanting to define and communicate services. When used as part of a service review or redesign, the patient-focused output sets clinical standards across all care settings in a local health economy.

Implementing the Map locally allows inter-professional groups from across organisations to achieve clinical consensus, ensuring that patient experience remains at the centre of all decision making on care design and delivery. For example, a series of workshops were held to redesign the Newham Diabetes map, which included secondary care consultants, GPs, allied health professionals, commissioners and patients. In South Devon, a multi-disciplinary team developed a new map for knee pain which created a specialist primary care based clinic, reducing referrals, waiting times and costs.

Care maps are also available to patients and the public via NHS Choices. This allows patients to self-educate and engage with expert guides, GPs and other care providers, about their journey, improving patient and public engagement. Read more about patient access.  

The Map improves the communication between GPs and provider organisations, establishing a benchmark for the clinical practice expected. It improves the collaboration and building of relationships as the local clinical groups agree a  map that follows the end to end patient journey. Local care maps are visible across organisations, allowing local innovation to be shared.

Delivery on improvements in patient resources, the prevention and treatment of chronic illness and the reduction of health inequality can be achieved. Learn how healthcare communities in the NHS are using the Map.