To not understand how SystmConnect gives more GP appointments if they’re having to triage appointment requests on top of seeing patients

[C0lintgeCaterpillar]

Anything that makes things fairer is great but surely sifting through hoards of requests, checking up things on records to ensure they make the right appointments is going to suck up more of their time.

Our surgery says there will be no receptionists anymore as the GPs will be triaging everything through this system. Baffled as to how it will help overstretched GPs.

My GP is just starting this. I would have thought the same!! We had a pretty good online system for booking non emergency appts beforehand. Apparently it's because people book emergency appts when they don't need them. I don't know how bad a problem that is especially as emergency appts are sort of triaged by the reception team anyway as they have to be made by phone. You can't just book them yourself. And if you offset the odd non emergency that slips through, i can't see how that would balance out against the shit ton of extra work the GPs will have triaging literally everyone!

Plus it's an extra stage to book an appointment as you do the online thing, they triage you and text you a link, and you can then book the appointment. More admin and harder for people who work or who are really busy to access appts. My DH struggles to book and attend appts as it is.

I am also concerned that'll they'll use this "triage" to not speak to or see patients at all. Sometime the isn't necessary but you might want a conversation and if they aren't seeing patients they'll miss other issues (vulnerabilities, safeguarding etc) and people fall through the cracks like they did during Covid.

The weird thing is that my doctors was always easy to get appts at. I've never known them to run out of emergency appts if needed and I can always get a non emergency within 2-3 weeks, usually 2. It's not like it's a surgery where people are struggling to get appts at all and so they are having to resort to something to cope.

But I am trying to reserve judgement and see how it works in practice!

That's appalling. My GP are still taking phone calls and you can also still drop in. What about people with no internet access?

Or who are illiterate or have other disabilities or vulnerabilities that make it hard or impossible to use the internet.

I know!!!!!

I am also strongly suspicious that it won’t be doctors doing the triaging but practise managers.

What happens if they make a mistake and a patient isn’t seen when they should be? Who takes responsibility.

My DH is a GP just switching over to a system like this. They will still have receptionists so those who phone or attend in person will essentially fill in the form with the receptionists.

Apparently this is going to be happening everywhere.

I hope I will still be able to arrange face to face appointments for my autistic dc. The info all seems very vague.

My DH practise is definitely triage by the doctors.

But how are they going to be triaging throughout the day and seeing patients?

Also on rare occasions we’ve needed to see a GP quite late in the day in an emergency. We rang the receptionist and she told us to come down immediately( thankfully).Now there will a delay to wait for a GP to sift through applications then email to tell you to go online and book an appointment.

The duty doctor has never been seeing patients, they have always been on triage.

What do you mean? The one seeing patients?

We have this system in my surgery and it works great. GPs triage requests. Sometimes they arrange for a pharmacist to give me a call and I strolled over to my local pharmacy the very same day and got a check up and meds. When I submit request, I select whether I want to be seen in person, over the phone or to have Dr email me. Email option is great for getting test results.
They also sent email round when they switched to this system to alert patient that those without internet access can continue making appoinents over the phone.

Still baffled as to how. It’s more work for GPs.

It isn't. There will be someone on duty doing triage and they will be supernumerary for those hours.

A lot of things people want an appointment for don’t actually need an appointment, this system means they can collect all the info on symptoms, what treatment or referrals you are asking for etc before the appointment (saving time with the doctor), send some people self help advice or a prescription without needing to take up an appointment slot, call some to get any extra detail needed to make a decision, and just book in person appointments for those who actually need them.

Yes get all that but it’s doctors doing all the sifting on top of seeing patients.

It's not more work for GPs though, we use this and it's bloody amazing, patients have given great feedback too. We do still have receptionists and a room for people to have help in person for those who struggle online or don't have access so it's fine. It's not more work for us, this assumption I think just highlights an (understandable) ignorance as to what GPs routinely do.

They have a doctor whose job it is to go through them, and less people will need an appointment

But I thought GPs only had certain hours in the day and they were struggling to fit everything in. How can they triage on top? They’re not going to be doing extra hours.

Our surgery uses an online system like this and its been great.

They respond incredibly fast and i can always get a face to face appointment for me/the kids same day when i need one.

Usually, an appointment would be 10 min and that's the only way to get through to the doctor. Now, often my issues are simple and can be dealt with thrive a quick message which probably takes 1-2 minutes max. So 5 appointments in 10 minutes for simple cases, always more time for admin and more complex cases

That’s reassuring.

If this is similar to eConsult it works the following ways:

1. It makes you answer a hundred questions and tells you to go to the pharmacy (even if you have already done that)

1. You lose the will to live halfway through the 100 questions so you give up.

1. You can't be bothered to answer 100 questions so just don't bother and either get more sick or turn up at A&E.

Basically it makes it absolutely impossible to see anyone, even for ongoing issues or worrying symptoms.

I just don't bother.

😫We’ll have to bother if we want to see a GP.

I am not familiar with GP practices but in our specialist service we have two clinicians who have allocated hours throughout the week to do trianges. Triaging reduces the number of inappropriate referrals which, in turn, helps with caseload. As in my example above, triage at the surgery redirected me to a pharmacist who was able to help me the same day, hence I wasn't seen by a GP unnecessarily and they had more time to deal with patients who needed to be seen or, indeed, triaged.