The Roxton Practice’s six-strong EDI and registration team has been using the Register with a GP surgery service for more than two years.

“We were using a self-built digital form to give patients an online way of registering,” explains Chloe Smith, Care Navigator Supervisor and EDI lead at the North-East Lincolnshire based practice.

“We found we could ask the questions we wanted, but it didn’t always match up with the paper registration form and there was often missing information. New patients also had to contact us first to use our online portal as they needed a password.”

So, we decided to use Register with a GP surgery alongside other online services that are designed to reduce pressure on our practice.”

Easier for practices

The practice, which has a list size of just under 35,000, deals with around 75 registrations a week and has noticed a marked reduction in errors and duplication since using the national digital service.

Fellow Care Navigator Supervisor Jess Boyes recalls: “We were finding that new records were being made, especially for patients from overseas. But now if the service can match the NHS number in PDS it will, so we already have the patient’s details to put in – it stops errors at our end.”

The reduction in registration errors is freeing up valuable time for the team which can be used in other ways.

Jess continues: “There is never a week where our inbox for registrations is empty.”

“We used to spend so much time doing detective work. We would find that a form dropped in and we were still trying to get hold of the patient weeks later to try and confirm what their NHS number was, because they had the wrong post code…”

Jess Boyes, Care Navigator supervisor at The Roxton Practice

“With our old online platform names would be entered incorrectly, and sometimes there wasn’t any contact information submitted, which made it very difficult for our team to register the patient.” Chloe adds

As early users of the service the Immingham team has been able to shape the national service to ensure it meets their registration needs.

Chloe is appreciative of the support provided by the service’s dedicated onboarding team, saying, ‘The service support team took our feedback on the questions we felt were necessary to have. Any time they make updates to the service they send us information so we can use the new feature straight away.”

Easier for patients

The practice team are strong advocates for the service on a personal level and have used it to register their own family.

Says Jess,

“I’ve used it to register my daughter and it’s easy. You follow the questions, you put in the details… it goes off and then it’s done. You’ve not got to worry about dropping it off at the surgery, keeping the forms safe. It takes minutes if that.”

In working life, the reception team at the practice and the practice managers feel the online service has significantly reduced pressure on the team, and they can also see the evidence of Register with a GP surgery’s 95% patient satisfaction rate on a daily basis.

Chloe looks back on the early days of the service as follows:

“We noticed the difference from our previous online registration service immediately. Patients wanting to register with us could access the link to register on our website or through a quick google search.

Jess adds: “Patients definitely find it easier; I’ve not had a single complaint about it. They’re not having to come in to get the forms or call the surgery for a password – they can do it all from home without the need to contact us first.”

The service has evolved over the two years and a recent development means that patients can now register the whole family online. Jess continues:

“The system tells you if somebody has registered someone else on their behalf so if we did need to ring up and follow it up it’s all there. We can see if mum has gone on to register the whole family, it is much easier to see those connections.”

Inclusive to all

The practice recognise that the online service is much more inclusive for groups that traditionally found it challenging to register with a GP and all the staff go above and beyond to make sure their doors are open to everyone.

Practice Manager Angela Cornelius explains:

“We’re involved with the Doctors of the World Safe Surgeries initiative. We have posters at every site, so staff are aware we don’t need to have ID to register…”

“We get a lot of overseas registrations at our surgery in Grimsby. Before we had the online service patients would come in with their phones asking our team to translate, whereas now they can do it all at home using online translation services if they need to”

The team are also saving valuable time deciphering handwriting as well as resolving issues regarding duplicate records. Angela continues:

“If they have come from overseas and they do struggle with writing in English, the online service still finds them straight away. And if it doesn’t, then we know that a new record needs to be made.”

The practice team are also finding the questions asked in the national online service benefit other groups of patients. As a Veteran Friendly practice, they are passionate about giving people who have served the specialist support they need from the point of registration and beyond.

“It’s one of the questions in the service so we get the information they have served straight away. It’s there, rather than something for us to try and find in the record…” adds Angela.

The practice team realised it was really important that they kept the non-digital route open for patients. As there is still a high demand for paper registrations, they also switched from the GMS1 form to the new paper registration form that complements the online service as soon as this available.

“…all the information you need is on one form. We’re not finding gaps, whereas on the old paper form there were bits that patients wouldn’t fill in – it’s quite easy to follow now,” says Jess.

The online service has made a real difference to the practice – even with the recent improvements to the paper form, it still comes second to the convenience of the digital service.

Chloe concludes:

“We wouldn’t choose to go back to our old online service, patients love using Register with a GP surgery as it’s much easier and more convenient for them. For the practice, the service set up is self-explanatory and the time we spend on admin has been cut down significantly.”

For more information on service benefits and to enrol visit https://digital.nhs.uk/services/register-with-a-gp-surgery-service/benefits-and-features

Chloe Smith, Care Navigator Supervisor and EDI lead, The Roxton Practice