Patient Charter
This is the Patient Charter from NHS England - designed to deliver and equal service across all General practices. The reality for all general practices is there are many factors which contribute to how they are set up, which makes the creation of a uniform service challenging. It’s a wonderful aspiration and we are working towards it.
One of the stipulations is to open reception, phone lines and online access 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday.
For the latter we have safety concerns. We receive 600+ online consults a day. We’ve trialled opening an hour longer and this resulted in an additional 60 enquiries /hr on average, so even if that’s not a consistent hourly increase this would comfortably generate an additional 200- 300 enquires a day.
We operate a total triage system, where one experienced GP reviews and triages all enquiries. With 200 + additional enquiries a day we are worried urgent enquires might get lost in the increased volume. Of course we can add more triage resource, but that results in less appointments, so it will take longer for patients to be seen. We can create waiting lists, but that slows down the service as we are viewing enquiries multiple times. Online consultations systems are transactional; designed to get and place an enquiry immediately.
Patient Feedback: We know there’s room for improvement with our access, but we’re on the right trajectory as complaints have tumbled to virtually nothing. Patients seem comfortable using the system as is; there’s an 85% satisfaction rate.
PPG Feedback: People can work within the timings if they are consistent, so our commitment for now is to close routine enquiries at 12noon. We close at 11am currently when we reach 800 Klinik cases to be actioned.
Operationally: As you predominantly make enquiries via the online system, this has allowed us to process an additional 18,000 enquiries annually. Together we are improving access and will continue to optimise what we do. But we cannot open online consultations all day in one step, it’s the practicalities which lie behind the change that make it unsafe to deliver what on the face of it seems simple