Welcome to the IMPRESS website; a joint initiative between the two leading respiratory clinical societies in the UK: the General Practice Airways Group (GPIAG) and the British Thoracic Society. The site contains all you need to know to commission or provide high quality patient-centred services, integrated between primary and secondary care. The focus is on COPD and asthma, which are the conditions most likely to require a mix of primary and secondary care over a person’s lifetime. The website is designed to equip commissioners with an understanding of the evidence-base, standards, workforce issues, and tricky issues such as interpreting data and coding correctly. Equally, it offers clinicians practical tools; an appreciation of how their services might be commissioned in the future, and suggestions of how they best engage with the commissioning process.
Mission and Members
Download the document here
Background Notes
Download background notes here
Jargon Buster
Click here
Latest news
3 July: as part of Next Stage Review Primary and Community Care Strategy launched including plans for pilot integrated care organisations.
Monday 30 June 2008: the review of the NHS by Lord Darzi is published: High Quality Care For All: NSR final report launched: click here.
It is accompanied by NHS Next Stage Review: A Quality Workforce. Click here
For a summary of the Review by IMPRESS Project Manager, Siân Williams, go to the Policy page.
25 June 2008: new IMPRESS COMMISSIONING A COMMUNITY COPD SERVICE: LESSONS FOR THE NHS
Based on a case study in Somerset PCT including dos and don'ts of procurement. Click here
18 June 2008: Respiratory HRG version 4.3 is now available for quick reference. See Jargon Buster Appendix 2.
3 June 2008: in conjunction with the launch by the Department of Health of Primary Care Trust Procurement Guide for Health Services IMPRESS has published its See our commissioning page. It will be followed by a fuller account of a case study from Somerset PCT about procurement of a COPD service (see 25 June).
We have also become aware of the lack of convergence between the evidence bases used by some commissioners, and that used by clinicians for decision-making. We are therefore reviewing how best to ensure that evidence from BTS and GPIAG conferences and publications gets into the domain of managers and commissioners. Equally, we are scanning the NHS websites for information about new service models in respiratory care, to ensure that the evidence from these is shared across the clinical community.
What next?
We have focused on COPD, in preparation for the NSF, and will continue to do work – such as produce a best practice guide to commissioning COPD services.
We will be working with Asthma UK to produce guidance on asthma care pathways.
Please draw the attention of your local commissioners to the new website.