GPAtlas SCA Marking Sheet

🔍 Data Gathering

This domain assesses the ability to systematically collect, synthesise, and utilise information to understand the patient's problem in its full context.

Criteria	🟢 Green (Excellent)	🟡 Amber (Satisfactory)	🔴 Red (Needs Improvement)
Structure & Organisation	Consultation is logical, fluent, and time-efficient. A clear, systematic approach is maintained throughout.	Structure is present but may be slightly disjointed or inefficient. May run slightly over time.	Disorganised, unsystematic, or excessively slow. Fails to progress through tasks logically.
Information Elicitation	Thoroughly explores the presenting complaint, relevant systems, and utilises all existing information effectively.	Key information is gathered, but with some minor omissions. Questioning may be slightly unfocused.	Insufficient information gathered for a safe assessment. Key red flags or aspects of history are missed.
Psychosocial Context	Sensitively and fully explores the relevant social, cultural, and occupational context and its impact on the patient.	Acknowledges psychosocial factors but does not explore them in sufficient depth.	Fails to recognise or respond to relevant psychosocial information.
Patient's Perspective (ICE)	Actively elicits and explores all three components (Ideas, Concerns, Expectations) in detail.	Elicits some aspects of ICE but may not explore them fully or may miss one component.	Fails to discover the patient's ICE, leading to a doctor-centred consultation.
Hypothesis Generation	Generates a relevant and logical differential diagnosis early and uses it to guide questioning and examination.	A differential diagnosis is considered but may be narrow, or questioning is not clearly hypothesis-driven.	Decision-making is illogical or incomplete. Hypotheses are not generated, tested, or are incorrect.

🗣️ Interpersonal Skills

This domain assesses the ability to develop rapport and engage in a patient-centred dialogue, demonstrating empathy, active listening, and effective explanation.

Criteria	🟢 Green (Excellent)	🟡 Amber (Satisfactory)	🔴 Red (Needs Improvement)
Rapport & Empathy	Builds rapport naturally and shows genuine empathy. Is respectful and sensitive to the patient's feelings.	Polite and professional, but rapport may feel formulaic. Empathy is shown but may lack warmth.	Approach is judgemental, insensitive, or fails to build any rapport. Patient appears uncomfortable.
Active Listening & Cues	Listens attentively, allows the patient to speak without interruption, and effectively identifies and responds to verbal and non-verbal cues.	Listens but may interrupt occasionally. Some cues are identified, but others are missed or not explored.	Does not listen actively, dominates the conversation. Important cues are ignored or shut down.
Exploring the Patient's Agenda	Actively seeks to understand and address the patient's agenda, health beliefs, and preferences throughout the consultation.	Acknowledges the patient's agenda but doesn't fully explore or integrate it into the management plan.	The patient's agenda, beliefs, and preferences are not sufficiently explored or are ignored.
Clear Explanations	Explains information (e.g., rationale for questions, diagnosis, plan) in clear, jargon-free language that is tailored to the patient.	Explanations are mostly clear but may contain some jargon or are not fully adapted to the patient's needs.	Explanations are inadequate, inappropriate, or confusing. Fails to check for patient understanding.
Shared Decision Making	Collaboratively develops a management plan, explicitly integrating the patient's ICE and preferences. Patient ownership is clear.	Proposes a plan and seeks patient agreement, but the process is not fully collaborative.	Imposes a management plan with little or no patient input. Ownership is not shared.

💊 Clinical Management

This domain assesses the ability to apply clinical knowledge and skills to make safe, appropriate, and patient-centred decisions for management.

Criteria	🟢 Green (Excellent)	🟡 Amber (Satisfactory)	🔴 Red (Needs Improvement)
Diagnosis & Justification	Reaches a safe and plausible working diagnosis (or synthesis for complex cases) and explains the reasoning clearly.	A diagnosis is offered but may be tentative or the rationale is not fully explained to the patient.	Diagnosis is incorrect, incomplete, or illogical. Fails to synthesise findings into a coherent analysis.
Management Plan	Formulates a safe, evidence-based, and personalised management plan that addresses the patient's needs holistically.	Plan is safe and clinically appropriate but may be generic or not fully personalised using the patient's context.	Management plan is inappropriate, not reflective of current practice, or potentially unsafe.
Investigations & Referrals	Justifies and arranges appropriate investigations and referrals in a timely manner, explaining the purpose clearly.	Investigations or referrals are appropriate but the justification is weak, or there's a slight delay.	Unnecessary investigations are ordered, or necessary ones are missed. Referrals are inappropriate or missed.
Managing Co-morbidity & Risk	Effectively considers and manages the implications of co-morbidity, uncertainty, and potential for serious disease.	Co-morbidity is acknowledged but its impact on the management plan is not fully considered.	The implications of co-morbidity or uncertainty are insufficiently considered, leading to an unsafe plan.
Follow-up & Safety Netting	Provides a specific, clear, and adequate follow-up and safety-netting plan, ensuring the patient knows when and how to seek help.	Safety netting is provided but is vague (e.g., "come back if it gets worse") or follow-up is unclear.	Arrangements for follow-up, continuity, and/or safety netting are inadequate or absent.
Prescribing Safety & Evidence Base	Prescribing and management are safe, current, and clearly evidence-/guideline-based, with appropriate attention to interactions, monitoring, and safety-netting.	Largely safe and reasonable management, but with minor gaps in evidence base, drug choice, monitoring, or interaction awareness.	Unsafe, outdated, or non-evidence-based prescribing/management, or important interactions, contraindications, or monitoring are missed.
Prioritisation & Medical Complexity	Confidently manages medical complexity and uncertainty, prioritising problems appropriately and balancing competing issues, comorbidities, and risk.	Manages most of the complexity but prioritisation is incomplete, or some competing problems or risks are under-addressed.	Fails to recognise or prioritise key problems, or is overwhelmed by the medical complexity, leading to unsafe or incomplete management.