National General Practice Improvement Programme

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Care Navigation

Practices are facing a widening gap between patient demand and the capacity available to meet that demand. We are now working with NHS England; the aim is to make best use of our multi-professional team as well as other primary care services available to our patients, for example community pharmacists and minor eye conditions and treatment service.

On Monday 25th September 2023 our Meadowfield Site will change Care Navigation at point of call. We have chosen to make changes initially at Meadowfield due to it being our largest site with 11,500 patients and this is where access to appointments is more problematic.

What does this mean for patients?

The current system is to call at 8am and be placed in a telephone queue or some patients opt to queue outside the front door of the surgery to book at the front desk when the door opens at 8am. Appointments are pretty much allocated on a "first come, first served" basis. As a result of this some more urgent cases cannot be offered an on the day appointment. We understand that this has left patients feeling frustrated and unhappy. We have therefore reviewed our care navigation and triage system in the hope that we can offer an improved way of booking an appointment.

From Monday 25th September 2023 every patient who needs an appointment is encouraged to contact us by telephone or e-Consult. They will then be navigated by our trained Care Navigation Team. The Care Navigators will ask questions about the issue and offer an appointment appropriate to needs, regardless of time of contact. We hope that by better managing our care navigation we can offer more appointments at time of contact. The most appropriate person may not be a GP; we have a team of highly trained clinicians and support staff including Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Pharmacists, Practice Nurses and Social Prescribing Link Worker.

We appreciate your continued support and co-operation at this time.

Published: Sep 19, 2023