29 May – 02 Jun 2023 Practice Update

Continual improvement

After the previous two weeks’ record achievements we settled down to achieving a healthy 1,674 patients this week. We were down in clinical capacity but the team, coming in every day to help make our patients’ lives better, did phenomenally well once again. We continue to explore every facet of our operation in order to provide a better service – and it’s working.

This week saw us being able to offer 90% of the patients being put on the daily waiting list to have a consultation.

• 402 patients called the Clinical Triage line
• 61 were asked if they wanted to be put on the daily waiting list.
• 55 patients from the waiting were called
• 31 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 1,674 patients,13.45% of the Practice population, and that included 815, 49% 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:
  • 974 in 2021 (42% fewer than 2023)
  • 1,281 in 2022 (23% fewer than 2023)
  • And this week our forecast already shows that we have processed 46.07% of 2022’s achievements.
• We processed 50 MED3 Fitnotes through our web forms.
• We processed 26 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 12 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 8 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 87% with our GP capacity being 76%.

Pharmacy

It would be remiss of us not to mention the ongoing and tireless work carried out by the clinicians and Pharmacy team to process the plethora of prescriptions and medication items.

Document Management

And in the month of May our Clinical Administrative team processed 7,600 patient documents including:

• 67 Accident and Emergency reports
• 55 Ambulance patient reporting forms
• 453 general administrative letters
• 1,685 Clinical letters
• 482 Outpatient medical notes
• 43 Patient registrations
• 1,019 referrals
• 704 results reports
• 379 unscheduled care reports
• 153 photographs
• 40 backscanned patient records
• 102 consent forms
• 89 emails

Recalls

We sent out over 450 recall letters for the month of May, and sadly over 120 did not answer and make the requisite appointments. Sending recall letters are costly and we are looking at more efficient methods of calling our patients for their annual reviews.

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 May – Dec 2023