Primary Care Extended Access

Tuesday 15 September

Dan IbeziakoHead of Engagement,

Communications and Marketing

Introduction

• The aim of this event is to raise awareness of:

- primary care, like always, is available to provide

you with care

- availability of evening and weekend GP

appointments

- additional healthcare professionals at GP

practices

- accessing services online

• Three public outreach events took place earlier in

the year at the Wulfrun Centre, Sainsbury’s St Marks

and the Mander Centre

• This is the final public engagement event that is

taking place virtually due to social distancing

restrictions

Sarah Southall Head of Primary Care

Access to primary care

To keep patients and healthcare staff safe during the pandemic, how you contact your

GP surgery will be different at the moment. You can still access GP services but it may

be in a different way to you are used to:

• Initial appointments by telephone or video – book an appointment by calling your

GP practice or using the Patient Access app

• If a clinician refers a patient for a face to face assessment, they will be referred to a

healthcare setting dependent on whether they have Coronavirus symptoms or not

• GP practices are prioritising face to face appointments for screening, childhood

immunisations, long-term condition reviews and learning disability health checks.

To keep patients and healthcare staff safe, please do not attend your GP practice to

request medication or book a routine appointment.

Access to primary care

Watch the animation online at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsCo3NrkFsw

Helping you to stay safe

GP practices will be helping patients and members of the public to stay

safe by sharing key messages with them. You will be able to find

information on your GP practice’s website, social media channels and you may receive information by text.

Patient Access App

Watch the animation online at https://vimeo.com/428211719/3c26e2676e

Evening and weekend

appointments

• Evening appointments are available until 8pm Monday – Friday

• Appointments are available on Saturday and Sundays

• Contact your GP practice for an appointment – this will be a telephone

appointment in the first instance and the healthcare professional will let

you know if you need to be seen

• If you require a face to face appointment, it may not be at your normal GP

practice but at a practice within your Primary Care Network

• Information is available on your GP practice’s website

Jo ReynoldsPrimary Care

Transformation Manager

Additional Healthcare

professionals

• Range of new roles in primary care

• Ensures the right healthcare professional sees you for your need –

not always a Doctor

• Benefits for patients – improved access to appointments

Additional Healthcare

professionalsWatch the video online at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72iM4fKmG7U&feature=emb_logo

• Telephone and video consultations can be more convenient for

people as they don’t have to visit the GP practice

• During the pandemic, telephone and video consultations have kept

our patients and staff safe, while allowing a flexible response

• Between the period of 2 March to 8 June, nationally, the number of

telephone consultations increased from 14% to 48%

Telephone and video

consultations

Digital exclusion and

inclusion

• Some people may not have access to the internet and may not be

able to take advantage of the appointment types we’ve discussed

• Booking an appointment online via the app is a choice – you can

still book an appointment via the phone if you prefer

• Post Covid-19, digital consultations will complement face to face

appointments but certainly won’t replace them

• If you would like to take advantage of digital services, but you

aren’t familiar with technology, you can get some training from:

www.onlinecentresnetwork.org or phone 0114 349 1666

• If you have a problem accessing GP online services please

contact your GP surgery who will help you.

Your questions answered

1. How is this information being shared with those who are not digitally able?

Also are posters being displayed in different languages including English in

waiting areas for when practices are open?

All practices have access to a range of resources in a toolkit that has been developed

including posters to use on site in practices and available in different languages upon

request (from practices). Practices are also pro-actively contacting vulnerable

patients to ensure their ongoing care needs are being met, via social prescribers and

other members of the practice team.

2. Is there an initiative that will provide a stabilisation of patient access

services? There is still very limited access and the consistency among GP

surgeries is non-existent

All practices in Wolverhampton are open, access is via telephone or online services.

If there are access problems please provide examples so that these can be

investigated.

3. What about elderly and disabled patients access and patients not computer

savvy?

Patients can still contact their practice by phone and will be advised how they will be

supported via telephone and where clinically necessary an appointment will be given

to attend the practice.

4. I have found it very difficult to set up my Patient access account although I

was given a form from my GP's surgery. I was not prompted to enter any of the

details on the form. Why is this? Thank you.

IM&T to confirm or identify which practice and we will follow up on the patient's

behalf.

5. What role if any will the PPG’s have?

PPGs will be encouraged to reaffirm to patients that General Practice is Open.

Patients should telephone first promoting the 'Talk before you Walk' Campaign. Also,

if there are accessibility problems please share these with your practice who will be

able to consider how further improvements can be made.

6. Are staff being tested for COVID-19 in surgeries? If so how successful has

this been?

All symptomatic staff have access to testing. There are 64 staff who have been tested

from Wolverhampton up to 23 June 2020 (staff have made direct contact to book a

test since that time). Sickness levels in Wolverhampton are very low at 3%.

Your questions answered

Your questions answered7. Should Covid be with us for a prolonged period of a year or even longer, do

you envisage making arrangements of a more permanent nature?

Our response arrangements will be in place for as long as needed. We are working

closely with NHS England and our local health care providers to ensure that together

we are able to manage patient care both safely and effectively. All of these

arrangements are reviewed regularly by not only the CCG but also with our health

and social care partners in Wolverhampton and the wider Black Country and West

Birmingham.

8. Should practices support PPG's by sending out info to patients via text or

email?

PPGs should agree with their practice(s) what is suitable to communicate via text or

email to patient to reinforce how to access general practice. Practices may wish to

adopt a joint campaign with their PPG to improve patient awareness and encourage

patient feedback about their experiences of care.

Thank you