Richard Fuller MP recently convened the latest update meeting with Saffron Health Partnership, their Patient Participation Group (PPG), and representatives of the Integrated Care Board (ICB), to discuss the ongoing plan to improve primary care provision delivered by the practice. These series of meetings are in response to the high level of concerns that constituents have raised with Richard both in person and by email.
Following the meeting, Richard said:
Overall I was encouraged by the steps that are being taken which I am confident, while not all necessarily in the immediate term, should deliver significant improvements as we move through the year. There are a number of measures being introduced to deliver noticeable changes for patients:
- A restructuring of workloads has freed up additional patient-facing clinical time equivalent to an additional 50-60 GP appointments each week.
- The phone system is being upgraded to provide different routes for different services rather than every incoming call getting stuck in the ‘appointments’ queue. This will help with phone enquiries for test results, phlebotomy enquiries, non-urgent requests etc.
- Saffron are committed to recruiting an additional 2 GPs during the current fiscal year with one currently in the process of onboarding.
- At present only around 25% of all available appointments are able to be pre-booked, however this will rise to 50% before the end of the summer. As many appointments are non-urgent and patients don’t need to be seen immediately, this will help take pressure off the immediate demand for appointments.
- More physical space is being made available in the Biggleswade surgery to improve clinical flow and accommodate the new GPs.
- The online ‘triage’ system used to assess urgency of need and allocate the appropriate patient response, will be available for more hours each month culminating in being fully operational during the entire surgery opening hours before the end of the calendar year. Experience from other practices which have successfully implemented ‘total triage’ systems show that this has a marked impact on reducing the 8am scramble for appointments whilst also ensuring the correct healthcare, at the required time, is delivered to patients.
- Whilst still falling short of being able to provide all phlebotomy requirements such as routine blood tests, Saffron have increased the amount of blood tests they can carry out by extending access to tests on some Saturdays and evenings.
There are still challenges to overcome and these plans have to be effectively implemented to provide the healthcare that is expected and deserved by local patients. Nevertheless I am encouraged by the commitment of all concerned to deliver positive change and I will continue to bring all parties together to ensure that progress is maintained and results are forthcoming.
I also welcome the efforts being undertaken by the practice and PPG to work together to improve communication with patients, in the form of a newsletter now, and potentially open forums in the future.
