Next steps for improving GP access announced
Friday, 12 April 2024
Thousands of patients are receiving quicker, more convenient access to NHS care from their GP practice and high street pharmacies, thanks to a major expansion of services under the primary care access recovery plan, which first launched a year ago.
As part of this work, almost every GP practice in England has now upgraded their phone systems moving from analogue systems to digital and cloud-based telephony which means people don’t need to sit in phone queues to get through to their GP practice. During trials, this increased patients’ ability to get through to their practice by almost a third.
Dr Paula Cowan, Medical Director for primary care in the North West and a GP based in Wirral said:
“It seems like a simple measure, but being able implement these new digital and cloud-based systems has allowed practices to work much more efficiently. Practice teams can now add messages to the system to let patients know their position in a queue so they aren’t getting a constant engaged tone, or they can offer to call them back.
“They can also download detailed data showing the busiest periods. Doing this means practices can allocate more team members to work during these busiest times, cutting waiting times for patients.”
More than nine in ten GP practices now have these systems in place, and those remaining practices who don’t yet have this functionality are working to agree dates for IT upgrades to happen with tech suppliers from next month.
Extra training has also been provided to reception/care navigator staff answering calls at surgeries, so that people who need to see their family doctor are prioritised, while those who would be better seen by other staff such as physiotherapists, pharmacists, or mental health specialists can do so more quickly.
These new ways of working are helping to ensure patients can get the right advice and treatment from the right person, as quickly as possible - whether that means accessing the practice in person, over the phone, or online.
Latest figures show that demand for GP care is up massively. GPs across the North West have delivered over 45 million appointments in the last year – that’s 5 million more than the year before.
The primary care access recovery plan also set out plans for more patients who need prescription medication to treat a common condition to be able to get it directly from a pharmacy, without needing a GP appointment first.
This offer, known as Pharmacy First, currently covers seven common conditions including earache, sore throat, or urinary tract infections, and is available from all community (high street) pharmacies throughout Cheshire and Merseyside.
This service, which was first launched at the end of January, has so far been received well by patients. For example, Helen Morear from Widnes took her seven-year-old son Maxwell to Widnes Late Night Pharmacy when he was complaining about a sore throat.
She said, “I’d just recovered from a nasty dose of tonsillitis and was concerned Maxwell had picked it up from me. It was just after the Easter bank holiday so I knew our GP would be really busy, and I’d heard about pharmacy first so thought we would try that.
“I would really recommend it. The pharmacist was knowledgeable and incredibly thorough with Maxwell. We were seen quickly, and he was diagnosed and treated there and then. He thankfully recovered quickly and managed to enjoy the rest of his Easter holidays.”
Dr Jonathan Griffiths, Associate Medical Director for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside and a GP in Cheshire said:
“These initiatives that have been put in place for patients are welcome changes, and are just a few of the range of measures we are looking at to make it quicker for people to get the help they need from their local primary care teams.
“I also want to thank all colleagues working across primary care services who are supporting all of these changes, while managing record levels of patient demand for care and seeing more patients than ever before. That continued hard work and dedication to improving services for our communities is making a real difference.”
Building on these successes, which were first announced in the GP Access Recovery Plan published last May, this week the NHS has set out some next steps for continuing to modernise general practice, expand pharmacy services, and offer patients more choice about how they access care.
These include plans to make the patient registration process to join a GP practice easier, and providing more self-referral options for services such as incontinence support, podiatry, audiology, physiotherapy and community nursing, which will help reduce waiting times for patients needing that care.
You can learn more about these next steps on the NHS England website.