With a rapidly aging population, particularly in West Dorset, demand on General Practice has been relentless. Unfortunately, resource allocation has failed to keep pace and General Practice is under huge strain.  

The chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, an independent healthcare think tank stated that practices that implement triage processes have been shown to manage patient demand in a safer, calmer, and more effective manner; something we have been operating since 2021. 

Currently our reception team field over 10,000 calls per month and our triage hub receives up to 5000 requests for GP advice and appointments every month. If all of these were converted to face-to-face appointments the wait to see a GP could extend to several months. 

We want to be able to see and look after our patients and to be able to offer timely medical advice, but it is simply not possible to see a GP for every symptom in every patient.  

However, if you are worried we are here to help and the best way to contact us is to use the eConsult system.

eConsult is an interface between patients and ourselves, allowing patients to provide us with information. It has not been designed by us and is far from perfect, but it is evolving, and has been approved by NHS England. It can be found on our website and can be completed from any smart phone, tablet, or computer.

If you are elderly and might be unable to use IT then you can phone our reception team, who will guide you through a series of simple questions to get an idea of your problem and how best that we can help. 

We recognise this does require a little upfront work and we appreciate this can be an inconvenience. However the average eConsult takes 3-5 minutes to complete.

Whilst it might appear that some of the questions that eConsult ask can appear to be irrelevant and can be frustrating, these are specifically designed to identify any red flag(s) or serious symptoms that require urgent attention. Our website also provides lots of useful self-help information for common conditions, and we ask that you consider self-care strategies prior to contacting us.

We also ask that where possible that you complete an eConsult rather than phoning our busy and already stretched reception team. This frees up the phone lines for our vulnerable elderly population who may not be IT literate. 

This is particularly important in this area where we now have more 80-90 year olds living in West Dorset than 20-30 year olds. It is also important during the winter months when circulating bugs, most of which are self-limiting illnesses, can overwhelm the capacity of our service. By completing an eConsult we can identify those patients with more significant illnesses and respond in a timely manner.

You may be aware that recruitment and retention problems in General Practice has seen a fall both nationally and locally in GP numbers.

We are fortunate to have recruited additional professionals and our team now has a wide range of skills including 5 highly trained Advance Nurse Practitioners who can diagnose and prescribe, First Contact physiotherapists who can do an initial assessment as well as Clinical Pharmacists and Social Prescribers.

Once you have completed an eConsult or you have been brought through the triage questions on the phone, these are then processed in our Advanced Triage Hub. The advantage of the eConsult is they go directly to the GP’s triage computer. 

We do ask that you are patient because the triage hub GP can process up to 400 patient triages per day, selecting patients whose clinical need is most acute to fill the available slots first and who best to see them. Some conditions can however be managed remotely. You may be asked for additional information by text, such as photographs of skin lesions etc and you may not even have to leave home to receive a diagnosis, advice or a prescription which can be sent to the pharmacy of your choosing. 

One of the big advantages of using eConsult is that it allows you to get the best use out of any subsequent appointment. This is because the clinician you are seeing already has a good idea of the nature of your problem and they can review relevant sections of your medical records or consult with the latest and national and local guidelines, ensuring you get the most effective use out of the consultation.

Also, by providing some information in the text boxes of the eConsult about specific worries about your symptoms or specific outcomes you were hoping to achieve by contacting us, this allows us to really hit the floor running during the subsequent consultation, so you get the best possible outcome.

Thank you for watching to the end and thank you for “Helping us to Help you”