Did you know that on average, the practice receives between 300-350 requests for GP consultations each week?
This averages to 70 per day, though Mondays are our busiest day with often over 100 requests. This week is looking likely to be one of our busiest weeks ever for requests, if not our busiest.
Our clinical team review (triage) all requests within 30 minutes and prioritise those which are considered medically urgent. If your concern is more routine, such as to discuss normal blood results, we will contact you as soon as we can within 3 working days.
To help us to help you, please enable AskMyGP on your phone so we can send emails to you, or ensure we have your mobile number to send text messages. We can then let you know if we have tried to contact you but not received a reply, or ask you to provide further information which helps the Clinical Team to prioritise calls.
In addition to the consultation requests, the work of the Clinical Team involves far more than the 15 minute appointments. For example, during March the practice also:
- Received 3,925 phone calls (daily average: 170)
- 1,595 AskMyGP requests (daily average: 70)
- Issued 7,964 medications by prescription (daily average: 346)
- Made 250 referrals for further care
- Reviewed 1,905 test results and arranged follow up care as required
- Reviewed and coded 836 documents and took action as required, such as arranging follow up tests and calls, changing medications etc.
This is only part of the work of the practice; the Nurses and Healthcare Assistants provided blood tests, ECGs, annual reviews, smears and so on. The Healthcoaches continued to support our most vulnerable patients with the support of the Complex Care team. The background work of the practice continued, including the introduction of birthday month recalls for chronic disease reviews, the management of the premises and staff, the COVID vaccination clinics with invitations sent to hundreds of patients with many being contacted individual by phone, and so many more things the practice does to support your care.
This isn’t just Bruton Surgery but all practices locally and nationally appear to be saying the same thing – demand in practice is exceptionally high and practices are working very hard to meet that demand.
We are sorry if we are not able to respond to you as quickly as you would like. This is because we prioritise medically urgent concerns first because they need urgent care. If you feel you are waiting longer than you would like to, it is because other people need our help more urgently but we will contact you as soon as we are able.
We hope this has given an insight into the work of the practice. If you would like to know more or feel you could offer a patient’s perspective, why not join our Patient Group. Further details are on our Patient Group page.