Understanding and planning access to Primary Care in South Tyneside HealthNet Friday 7 April 2017

For 1 week in February practices .. Recorded: How many appointments were on offer in the practice How many people rang in requesting appointments Reasons for people seeing the GP If the GP was the right person to see the patient Asked: People who rang in when they would most like to be seen including weekends, before 8am and after 6pm If telephone appointment would be acceptable

What is the overall picture? 19 practices out of 26 took part 1225 consultations were sampled 10,043 people were asked about appointment preferences

What did this work tell us?

When did patients say they would prefer to be seen (GP Appts)? High demand on mondays – does staffing/availability of appts need to be modelled to suit?

Purple is 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday

When did patients say they would prefer to be seen (Nurse Appts)? High demand on mondays – does staffing/availability of appts need to be modelled to suit?

Purple is 8am – 6pm Mon - Friday

Would you be happy for your appointment to be by telephone? The number of telephone consultations we currently offer stands at 14%

Could the patient have been seen by someone other than the GP? 45% of patients seen by GPs could have been dealt with by another professional or by self care (ie did not need to be seen at all)

Who should have seen the patient instead? 556 Nurse (320) Pharmacist (68) MSK/ Physio (56) Mental Health Worker (55) Other (57)