Changes to booking an appointment

NHS England has rolled out a new Delivery plan for access to General Practice - Modern General Practice Model

This model is a way of organising work in general practice that enables practices to:

• See all patient needs, by providing inclusive, straightforward online and telephone access.
• Understand all needs through structured information gathering.
• Prioritise and allocate needs safely and equitably (including continuity of care).
• Make best use of other primary care services and the multi-professional team.
• Improve the efficiency of their processes and reduce duplication.

Learn more about the new system on the NHS England website

From June 2024 onwards, our reception teams will be asked to collect structured information when you call. A clinician, usually GP, would then decide how to best address your needs based on information given keeping in mind objectives laid out above. It is not required to call at 8:30am for this to happen.

In order to reduce the time you have to spend on phone before speaking to the reception team, the practice has invested in a call back system which will be active as of 11th June 2024. This means you will be able to put the phone down but still keep your place in the queue and when it is your turn, your phone will ring. We hope that the introduction of this change will resolve a common complaint that we receive, this being that it can be difficult to get through to the surgery by phone.

For non-urgent queries or administrative help, best means of contact is via online patient triage tool called e-consult. This is available via our appointments page. We will aim to reply within 72 hours, in most cases much sooner.

These fundamental changes are being made in keeping with NHS England directions to ensure Avisford Medical Group remains sustainable for future General Practice needs for its patients.

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Published: May 21, 2024