I am an academic GP and my research interest is in all aspects of patient safety in primary care. I have been involved in prescribing safety research for the last ten years and helped to develop prescribing indicators used by the RCGP and the CPRD. I worked on the multi-centre NIHR patient safety toolkit project for general practices which was adopted by the RCGP. My doctoral work focused on safety of communication at the interface of primary and secondary care. My NIHR advanced fellowship https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/research/hscience/apc/qualityandsafety/gpmate/ allows me to develop this work to produce resources for primary care and for patients to improve safety at the interface of primary and secondary care. I am a mixed methods researcher familiar with most methodological techniques and have particular skills in RAND UCLA consensus methodology. I work with West-Midlands ARC and Warwick Business School and am always interested to give a general practice view on patient safety project, collaborating within the department and externally. If you are interested in joining a patient safety special interest group at the University please contact me. I have an interest in supervising post-graduate research on patient safety, primary care and participatory methods, please contact me directly if you are considering undertaking a PhD at WMS that you think I might supervise.
I was an academic GP trainee funded by the NIHR from 2011-2013 and worked with Professor Anthony Avery at the University of Nottingham. I completed my doctoral work with the same team between 2014 and 2018 funded by an NIHR career progression fellowship. I have worked as a part-time salaried GP in Coventry for the last 10 years. In 2018 I was the West Midlands CRN First 5 research champion promoting research in practice to young GPs across the region. In the first part of 2019 I undertook a sabbatical to New Zealand to work as a GP there. I'm now an Associate Clinical Professor in the Unit of Academic Primary Care - I'm usually on site at the medical school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Tuesday and Friday I work as a GP at Engleton House practice in Coventry. If you are one of my NHS patients please do not use the above email to contact me. Instead please contact your general practice in the normal manner.
- Underwood, Martin, Noufaily, Angela, Blanchard, Hazel, Dale, Jeremy, Harlock, Jenny, Gill, Paramjit, Griffiths, Frances, Spencer, Rachel, Slowther, Anne-Marie, 2024. General practitioners? views on emergency care treatment plans; an on-line survey. BJGP Open
- Hoverd, Eleanor, Staniszewska, Sophie, Dale, Jeremy, Spencer, Rachel, Devrell, Anne, Khan, Dena, Lamouline, Carrol, Saleem, Sanya, Smith, Pam, 2024. Co-producing an online patient public community research hub : a qualitative study exploring the perspectives of national institute for health research (NIHR) research champions in England. Research Involvement and Engagement, 10 (1)
- Omar, Islam, Hafez, Ahmed, Zaimis, Tilemachos, Singhal, Rishi, Spencer, Rachel, 2023. AVOIDable medical errors in invasive procedures : facts on the ground ? An NHS staff survey. International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine, 34 (3), pp. 189-206
- Weetman, Katharine, Spencer, Rachel, Dale, Jeremy, Scott, Emma, Schnurr, Stephanie, 2021. What makes a ?successful? or ?unsuccessful? discharge letter? Hospital clinician and General Practitioner assessments of the quality of discharge letters. BMC Health Services Research, 21
- Spencer, Rachel, Singh Punia, Harjot, 2021. A scoping review of communication tools applicable to patients and their primary care providers after discharge from hospital. Patient Education and Counseling, 104 (7), pp. 1681-1703
- Weetman, Katharine, Dale, Jeremy, Spencer, Rachel, Scott, Emma, Schnurr, Stephanie, 2020. GP perspectives on hospital discharge letters : an interview and focus group study. BJGP Open, 4 (2)
- Campbell, Stephen M., Bell, Brian G., Marsden, Kate, Spencer, Rachel, Kadam, Umesh, Perryman, Katherine, Rodgers, Sarah, Litchfield, Ian, Reeves, David, Chuter, Antony, Doos, Lucy, Ricci-Cabello, Ignacio, Gill, Paramjit, Esmail, Aneez, Greenfield, Sheila, Slight, Sarah, Middleton, Karen, Barnett, Jane, Moore, Michael, Valderas, Jose M. et al (Select to open full list), 2019. A patient safety toolkit for family practices. Journal of Patient Safety
- Spencer, Rachel, Rodgers, Sarah, Salema, Ndeshi, Campbell, Stephen M., Avery, Anthony J., 2019. Processing discharge summaries in general practice : a qualitative interview study with GPs and practice managers. BJGP Open, 3 (1)
- Bell, Brian G., Spencer, Rachel, Marsden, Kate, Perryman, Katherine, Campbell, Stephen M., Avery, Anthony J., 2016. Building a patient safety toolkit for use in general practice. InnovAiT: Education and inspiration for general practice, 9 (9), pp. 557-562
- Spencer, Rachel, Campbell, Stephen M., 2014. Tools for primary care patient safety : a narrative review. BMC Family Practice, 15 (1)
- Bell, Brian G., Spencer, Rachel, Avery, Anthony J., Campbell, Stephen M., 2014. Tools for measuring patient safety in primary care settings using the RAND/UCLA appropriateness method. BMC Family Practice, 15 (1)
- Spencer, Rachel, Bell, Brian, Avery, Anthony J., Gookey, Gill, Campbell, Stephen M., 2014. Identification of an updated set of prescribing-safety indicators for GPs. British Journal of General Practice, 64 (621), pp. e181-e190
- Avery, Tony, Gookey, Gill, Spencer, Rachel, Knox, Richard, Marsden, Kate, Salema, Ndeshi, 2013. Avoiding hazardous prescribing. InnovAiT: Education and inspiration for general practice, 6 (8), pp. 488-496
- Avery, Tony, Gookey, Gill, Spencer, Rachel, Knox, Richard, Marsden, Kate, Salema, Ndeshi, 2013. Providing the right medication monitoring. InnovAiT: Education and inspiration for general practice, 6 (8), pp. 515-523
- Avery, Tony, Gookey, Gill, Spencer, Rachel, Knox, Richard, Marsden, Kate, Salema, Ndeshi, 2013. Providing the right dose instructions. InnovAiT: Education and inspiration for general practice, 6 (8), pp. 506-514
- Avery, Tony, Gookey, Gill, Spencer, Rachel, Knox, Richard, Marsden, Kate, Salema, Ndeshi, 2013. Selecting the right drug. InnovAiT: Education and inspiration for general practice, 6 (8), pp. 478-487
- Avery, Tony, Gookey, Gill, Spencer, Rachel, Knox, Richard, Marsden, Kate, Salema, Ndeshi, 2013. Undertaking effective medication reviews. InnovAiT: Education and inspiration for general practice, 6 (8), pp. 524-533
- Avery, Tony, Gookey, Gill, Spencer, Rachel, Knox, Richard, Marsden, Kate, Salema, Ndeshi, 2013. Selecting the right dose. InnovAiT: Education and inspiration for general practice, 6 (8), pp. 497-505
- Spencer, Rachel, Avery, Anthony, Serumaga, Brian, Crowe, Sarah, 2011. Prescribing errors in general practice and how to avoid them. Clinical Risk, 17 (2), pp. 39-42
- Avery, Anthony J., Dex, Grant M., Mulvaney, Caroline, Serumaga, Brian, Spencer, Rachel, Lester, Helen E., Campbell, Stephen M., 2011. Development of prescribing-safety indicators for GPs using the RAND Appropriateness Method. British Journal of General Practice, 61 (589), pp. e526-e536
- Spencer, Rachel, 2020. Making hospital discharge safer for frail older patients. British Journal of General Practice, Royal College of General Practitioners, pp. 276-277
Title | Funder | Award start | Award end |
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Increasing the uptake of annual health checks in children and young people aged 14-17 years with learning disability | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR DoH) | 01 Mar 2025 | 29 Feb 2028 |
A mixed methods evaluation of how general practice is engaging with the NHS net zero goal, an what is needed to promote decarbonisation (The GPNET-0 study) (NIHR HS&DR STAGE 2) | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR DoH) | 01 Sept 2023 | 28 Feb 2026 |
GP Management After Transition Events (GP-MATE) - Developing an intervention to assist older patients' communication with their GP practice after discharge from hospital in order to improve patient safety (NIHR Advanced Fellowship St2, Outline: 66387) | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR DoH) | 01 Sept 2021 | 31 Aug 2025 |
OID for GP MATE GP Management After Transition Events (GP-MATE) - Developing an intervention to assist older patients' communication with their GP practice after discharge from hospital in order to improve patient safety AWARD 69204 - R.MRSS.1133 (NIHR Advanced Fellowship St2, Outline: 66387) | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR DoH) | 01 Nov 2023 | 31 Jan 2025 |
Evaluating the ReSPECT process in the community setting. | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR DoH) | 01 May 2021 | 30 Apr 2023 |