15 – 19 May 2023 Practice Update

Continual improvement

We were completely astonished at this week’s achievements with patient contacts. Having been evolving the Clinical Triage system since May 22, and having trialled a number of methods of operation, we find that we consulted with 1,913 patients this week – an all time 3 year record. This really boils down to adopting a new concept that tackles the demand on today’s modern Primary Care. The concept is that of looking at what assets and availability you have measured against the demand that you face. The reality is that this changes on a daily basis; and so opting to have a fixed plan for a fluid demand simply does not work.

We are under no illusions that we will be able to continue to surpass last year’s weekly consults, or that we can achieve more than 1,913 patients again – but we need to acknowledge that this didn’t happen by concept alone; a number of key members within our team went way over and above that which was reasonably expected of them – and we are so grateful that they did.

The team continues to pull together exceptionally well and the daily waiting list continues to prove successful; this week saw us being able to offer 77% of the patients being put on the daily waiting list to have a consultation.

• 446 patients called the Clinical Triage line
• 114 were asked if they wanted to be put on the daily waiting list.
• 102 patients from the waiting were called
• 42 patients were triaged through the Urgent on the Day facility

The Clinical Triage initiative continues to prove evidence that the Urgent-on-the-Day lists are reducing.

We are working on offering a percentage of our availability as online requests for Clinical Triage. This will be for patients who are registered for Vision Online Services. The availability will be from 07:45 and is to allow patients to request a booking prior to the 08:00 opening time.

Ordering prescriptions online

The online Prescription Request initiative remains to be popular and that is resulting in a lot of telephone calls that don’t have to happen – and that frees up the appointments line, and takes some of the patients away from the prescriptions line.

Of course the most efficient way of getting your prescriptions ordered is through Vision Patient Services because that feeds directly into our clinical system and allows the patient to see exactly what is on their current and repeat prescription lists. It’s really easy to use and applying for registration is just as easy. Check out the following links:

• Look at the videos showing exactly what the service is all about
• Apply to the Practice for registration details
• Then get your letter with the 3 important pieces of information for you to register
• Then register
• Once you have registered and have a username and password you can then login

If you are using our online form then we’ll probably contact you in order to get you moved across to the service.

Our statistics

Here are some of the main points for the week:

• This week saw us consult with 1,913 patients,15% of the Practice population, and that included 964, 50% of this week’s consultations as Face to Face contacts.
• Looking back over the past two years, in this week of each calendar year, and comparing like for like our patient contacts were:
  • 911 in 2021 (52% fewer than 2023)
  • 1,746 in 2022 (8% fewer than 2023)
  • And this week our forecast already shows that we have processed 41.54% of 2022’s achievements.
• We processed 49 MED3 Fitnotes through our web forms.
• We processed 45 Prescription requests through our web forms.
• Remember to contact us using the web form if you need to cancel your appointment because we can offer the appointment to other patients on the waiting list. Click here to find out how to cancel your appointment.
• We got 18 more patients on Vision Online Patient Services and so they will be able to order their prescriptions online – and this feeds directly into our clinical system. Check out our website for more information on Vision Online Services.
• We received 16 Subject Access Requests; ranging from patients wanting the results of their tests to full copies of medical records.
  • Find out more about Subject Access Requests on our website.
  • Find out about how to access your test results on our website.
• It was great to see many of our patients completing the Epilepsy Review form, which in turn allows us to keep an accurate record of the patient’s health.
• We’re still working on an online Home Blood Pressure Monitoring form to allow patients to submit daily or weekly average readings. More to follow.
• Once again we’d like to thank all patients for their patience and understanding last week.

Going into next week, our clinical capacity is at 95% with our GP capacity being 76%.

Clinical Capacity

The chart below show our overall clinical capacity, ie our doctors, Advanced Clinical Practitioners, Practice Nurses, and Healthcare Assistants in relation to our GP availability. The fluctuation in general clinicians’ availability is illustrative of the percentage of our total capacity in relation to absences (planned as well as sickness); and the availability of GPs.

We are showing that we never have 100% of the GPs that we would like to have; and so when one goes off at short notice, for any reason, the week becomes challenging. We have planned for Locum coverage, but that is not always available. In order to balance the requirement we have invested heavily in upskilling of our Advance Care Practitioners and senior Practice Nurses, many of whom are independent prescribers, as well being particularly adept in many fields, and take a significant amount of routine work from the GPs; which has the additional benefits of freeing up the GPs’ time to look at the more complex cases.

This chart shows our clinical capacity from Apr – Aug 2023