THOUSANDS of patients across the North West are receiving quicker, more convenient access to NHS care from their doctors and high street pharmacies, thanks to a major expansion of services under the primary care access recovery plan.

This is thanks to schemes upgrading phone technology and Pharmacy First which have rolled out across the country.    

Almost every GP practice in England has 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 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.”

Practices who don’t currently have this functionality are working to agree dates for upgrades to happen with tech suppliers and this is expected to happen from next month.    

Extra training was also provided to 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 or mental health specialists can do so more quickly.     

Latest figures show that GPs in the North West delivered over 45 million appointments in the last year – 5 million more than the year before.      

The primary care access recovery plan also set out plans for patients who need prescription medication to be able to get it directly from a pharmacy, without a GP appointment, for seven common conditions including earache, sore throat, or urinary tract infections.  This service rolled out in January and so far, has been received well.

Helen Morear from Widnes took her seven-year-old son Maxwell to Widnes Late Night Pharmacy when he was complaining about a sore throat.

Helen 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.  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 the Easter holidays.”

Dr Cowan added:   

“The initiatives that have been put in place for patients is welcome news and just one of a range of measures to make it quicker for people to get the help they need from their local primary care teams.  

“I want to thank all colleagues working across primary care services who are managing record demand and seeing more patients than ever before.”      

Case study

Bay Medical Group, based in Lancashire and South Cumbria, are a five practice single PCN with an estimated 55,000 patient population who has transformed the way patients access care by introducing a new booking system in January.

The new way of working, with an aim to ensure patients can get the right advice and care from the right person, when needed, means all patients, whether accessing the practice in person, over the phone or online are triaged by the clinical assessment team.  This team includes GPs, Advanced Clinical Practitioners, Mental Health Practitioners and Physiotherapists. 

Patients are asked six questions asked about conditions including what is wrong, how long they have had the issue and what they have done, if anything, to self-care.  If an urgent appointment is needed, it is given, or the person is given a routine appointment at a time convenient to them.   

To further help support the practice, the team will also be rolling out cloud-based telephony from May, which will further allow the practice to be more efficient and in turn increase access for patients. 

Dr Joanne Price, GP lead at Bay Medical and Clinical Director for Bay Primary Care Network said: “Implementing new ways of working has really helped us continue to improve our services so that more patients can get the care they need more easily.”