Dear Patients.
Thank you for your patience during the teething issues we have experienced following the installation of our new telephone system. This was a system change that was forced upon us by NHS England and we hope that the issues are resolving.
More excitingly however we have been spending lots of time behind the scenes putting in place a new pathway for accessing Primary Care Services. Some of you will already have tried our new online service called AccuRx Triage. Going forward this will be our preferred route for you contacting us for routine clinical and administrative enquiries.
In fact, whether you call the reception team or use the online form, your request will enter the same pathway. If you are unable to access the online form, you can still call our reception team and they will ask the same questions on the form and transcribe your answers. From here, our Care Navigation Team will review each request, in turn (from both online and over the phone requests) and will be in contact. This will happen within 2 working days of your request being submitted. You will be offered the most appropriate next steps based on your expressed symptoms and history. This may be a face to face appointment, telephone consultation, a specific health questionnaire to complete or directed to online self help advice and guidance. In instances of appointment offers you will receive a text message with a simple weblink that will allow you to book an appointment on a day and time of your choice, that suits you. With just a few taps, your appointment would be booked!
Our aim is to get you to the right clinician, right place, at the right time, first time and through a system that should feel intuitive and simple to use. We want to improve upon our accessibility, as well as your experience, when contacting the Practice, to make it quicker and more convenient.
This new system will help improve the current average call waiting time down from 10 minutes, freeing up our telephone lines to receive same day emergency calls more quickly. We strongly encourage you to contact us by this quick online AccurxTraige route for routine requests where able.
For those of you that were previously put off by our old ‘e-Consult’ system, please be reassured that this is a much slicker and sophisticated system that is so much easier to use.
The following links show you a more in-depth window in to how the system works. The first link being a written guide and the second 2 links are videos on using the service.
When you next have a routine medical need or request we urge you to try this route in.
Thank you in advance
St Paul’s Surgery Partners