"Virtually uncontactable"

Thank you for your review. We have changed our telephone and appointment system to ensure that every patient receives fair and equitable access to our appointment system and meets Government advice that GP surgeries should offer a total triage system. All GP surgeries face an ever growing demand for appointments, not all requests are appropriate for a GP to deal with. Our new telephone and appointment system are designed to help patients as quickly as possible. We have listened to patient feedback about the long wait on the phone and the dissatisfaction with our previous appointment system.

Westongrove have implemented an online request form for patients to complete in the comfort of their own home. The form requires the patient to fill out the form as fully and as accurately as possible in order for the clinician to assess what it is the patient needs.

We aim to ensure the patient receives the right appointment with the right clinician the first time to reduce the number of appointments the patient has to make.

Currently we ask patients to submit a form between the hours of 7.30am and 4pm. This is because we are aiming to deal with every single request the same day – if we experience a surge in demand there may be occasions where we temporarily suspend the ability to request an appointment. Patients can choose to wait until the service re-opens or can contact 111. If their medical need is an emergency they will be asked to attend A+E.

We do acknowledge that there are members of our community that do not have access to an electronic device or the Internet. We will have tablets at each surgery for patients to use.

We are encouraging as many as patients to use the online form to request appointments and submit queries in order for the reception team to be able to help those that cannot use the tablet. If an appointment is needed for the same day, the team will try the patient twice, if the patient does not respond they will be asked to submit a new form if the patient is still requiring an appointment. If the appointment is a routine request, we will try to call the patient once, if the patient does not reply and the patient has a mobile, we will text them the date and time of the appointment and invite the patient to contact us if this is not convenient. If the patient does not have a mobile we will leave a message asking the patient to call us back..

New appointment systems are challenging for patients and staff but we strongly believe that this system will improve access and continuity for patients and does mean that every single patient will follow the same pathway to achieve their individual treatment outcome.