THE CARING ABOUT CARERS AWARD 2010

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is working in partnership with The Princess Royal Trust for Carers across the UK to raise awareness of the need to support carers in primary care.

The publication Supporting Carers: An action guide for general practitioners and their teams, produced by the RCGP and The Trust, and distributed by the Department of Health in 2009 to every GP practice in England, has made great progress in helping GPs and their teams to identify and support carers.

There is, however, still much work to do to raise GPs’ awareness and so we are delighted to announce the inaugural “Caring about Carers Award” for those GPs and practice teams who provide an excellent service to carers.

This will be a prestigious high-profile award resulting in a winner for each home nation and an overall UK-wide winner. Awards will be presented at the RCGP’s Annual Conference in October in front of an audience of more than 1000 GPs. The Trust’s President Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal will sign a certificate for the winning general practitioners and their teams and the prize will also include a commemorative plaque to display in surgeries.

GPs must be nominated by one of their patients to be eligible for an award. Please encourage carers in your area to nominate their GP or practice team by writing to us at the contact details below, including,

• their name, address, telephone number.
• their doctor’s name and surgery contact details.
• how their GP supports them in their caring role

The closing date for entries is 11th June, 2010.

All nominations should be either emailed to [email protected] or sent by postal address to:
Caring About Carers Award 2010
The Royal College of General Practitioners
14 Princes Gate
Hyde Park
London SW7 1PU

Once nominated, GPs and practice teams will be asked to complete a ten question self assessment checklist. This will be a shorter version of the checklist featured in Supporting Carers: An action guide for general practitioners and their teams available at The Trust’s website dedicated solely for professionals working with carers at www.carers.org/professionals.

The closing date for entries is 11th June, 2010.