We would like to make you aware that since 1st October, there has been national GP contract changes that will affect how GP services are delivered. Unfortunately, these changes are outside of our control, and we are concerned that they could significantly impact the service we are able to provide.
Every query or request for an appointment received by the practice, either in person, via telephone, or online, must receive a response from the practice to advise ‘what will happen next’ within 1 working day. There is no safe limit applied to how many requests, or queries a practice must deal with and therefore demand for our triage service will be unlimited on any given day.
Having considered how we can work to meet these new contractual requirements in a safe way, we have concluded that it will be necessary to allocate a greater proportion of GP time to triaging (reviewing and assessing the urgency of, and the appropriate response to, requests of a clinical nature). This will inevitably result in reduced GP availability to provide more ‘classical’ consultations, when it is deemed, following triage, that this is what is required. This may mean that patients will need to be redirected to other services more regularly than is presently the case and will likely mean that waiting times for GP appointments for less urgent problems will increase.
We want to reassure you that our priority remains providing safe and effective care to all our patients, and we will continue to do our best to support you under this new system.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support during this period of change.
GP Partners at Ashwell Surgery