22 – 26 May 2023 Practice Update

Continual improvement

After last week’s phenomenal achievement we couldn’t have believed that we would surpass that amount of patient consults – but we did!

This week saw us consult with 1,925 patients, 10 more than last week – and an all time 3 year record. We were still down clinicians and we adapted accordingly. Your Medical Practice Team worked with a quiet and unassuming efficiency and we are so proud of them.

This week saw us being able to offer 77% of the patients being put on the daily waiting list to have a consultation.

• 425 patients called the Clinical Triage line
• 58 were asked if they wanted to be put on the daily waiting list.
• 53 patients from the waiting were called
• 40 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.

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 1,925 patients,15.46% of the Practice population, and that included 919, 48% 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:
  • 1,066 in 2021 (45% fewer than 2023)
  • 1,483 in 2022 (23% fewer than 2023)
  • And this week our forecast already shows that we have processed 43.96% of 2022’s achievements.
• We processed 45 MED3 Fitnotes through our web forms.
• We processed 34 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, same as the previous week, 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 13 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 97% 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