Chislehurst Medical Practice
Key stats
- Patient List size: 15,200
- Launched: 1st October 2018
- Model: Routine Clinic
Key messages:
- Our GPs make sure to ask patients to follow up using eConsult – it reassures the patient that the doctor wants to hear from them through the service
- We’ve made some changes to our appointment book to make sure eConsult works for us
- We like that we can use eConsults to work with our GPs’s availability; if the requested GP is unavailable we send them to the duty doctor if they are urgent
Our GP Partners at Chislehurst Medical Practice really wanted eConsult as a service that would help them consult with patients efficiently and managing demand as we’re a large practice. Continuity of care was our biggest challenge.
Patients’ requests are sent to the appropriate GP, unless they are unavailable. If a patient’s request is urgent then we add it to the duty doctor’s list so that they can be responded to on the day. As eConsult provides the patient’s history up front, it’s easy for us to determine this as soon as one comes in. If a patient’s request isn’t urgent then we get back to the patient letting them know that the requested GP will respond. Our patients really value it because it means they still get the continuity of care that they would with any other appointment type.
“Our doctors are loving eConsult. It’s making time management much easier.”
Practice Manager
At Chislehurst Medical Practice we’ve changed our appointment type so we can manage the eConsults coming in. In the morning eConsults that come in for specific doctors go to that doctor for review, or go into the duty doctor if acute. We’ve removed an afternoon appointment session and replaced it with eConsult slots.
When we are unable to offer face to face appointments we offer patients eConsults to remind them they could still get help on the day. Our reception team are more confident telling patients about this, because we want our patients to know about eConsult.
“Quick and efficient. Called well before I was expecting a reply and it meant I didn’t have to take time off work”
Patient
We’ve also seen an increase in patients using eConsult since getting reminder cards that our GPs hand out to patients asking them to use eConsult for follow ups. It also reinforces the idea that our GPs want our patients to be using the service, instead of patients feeling like we’re just ‘selling’ them something.
Our GPs love eConsult at Chislehurst Medical Practice because they can manage their time better, and we’re hoping that as eConsult numbers grow we’ll see even greater benefits.
