NEWS
by Rachael Rowe
What to do with 7,000 unanswered calls to local GPs every month? Like every general practice surgery in the NHS, Gillingham Medical Practice is under pressure. But despite the workload, the priority is always making sure the patients get the right care from the right person in a timely way. There has been a lot of publicity in the mainstream media recently about GPs not offering face to face appointments and increasingly long waiting lists. There has been significantly less reported on what clinical staff have done about working ‘smarter’ in order to protect vulnerable people. A lot of this work goes on behind the scenes Dr Chris Pearce from Gillingham Medical Practice
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and is generally invisible to the for a moment. That’s just one public - but is, in fact, making a practice in Dorset. Others have big difference. Dr Chris Pearce the same issues. And it’s not explains some of the issues sustainable. The team, like so and why Gillingham Medical many other practices across Practice had to the county, “Gillingham Surgery have turned to change some of the ways it technology to received 14,500 assesses patients phone calls a month. help them, and by adopting a new implemented Only 53 per cent solution. a new system of those calls got “Prior to the called Total new system, Triage and answered; there Gillingham eConsult. Of simply weren’t Surgery received course there’s enough people to 14,500 phone still an option calls a month. pick up the phone” to simply phone Only 53 per cent the practice of those calls got and make an answered; there simply weren’t appointment, but patients can enough people to pick up the now use an online system to phone. It’s impossible to deal describe exactly what they with that volume.” would like help, along with any Just think about that number symptoms. eConsult is based
