Apparently there’s lots more money, funding for 22,000 addtional health workers in primary and community care, and everyone seems very happy with it. I couldn’t possibly digest the whole lot but will concentrate on what we know best.
This is going to increase GP workload and cut patient access.
How so? See the fine print in the IT and digital section.
1. NHS111 will have the right to book directly into 1 appointment slot per 3,000 patients (rounded down) per day.
Leave aside the technical issues, problems of policing the scheme and arguments over unused slots, late booking and so on, what would happen even if it did work perfectly?
In a traditional practice with more patient demand than available slots, they tend to be all booked up within minutes of reception opening. You know, we know, everybody knows.
So now what does the savvy patient do? Call NHS111. Go through all the palaver of identifying themselves, answering dozens of irrelevant yet scary questions, eventually landing with “I need to see the GP. And I have a right to one of those 2 appointments in my practice of 8,999 patients, today.”
Boom, they got it. But they got the second one and there is no way of telling the other 23 patients who were turned away by the practice, so all of them go through the NHS111 palaver again, but get the same message: all slots gone.
So we’ve wasted NHS and patients’ time, added a bunch of complexity, and increased GP capacity by precisely zero.
And by the way, what do GPs think of the ability of NHS111 to triage a patient and provide concise and relevant detail of the conversation? Do ask one.
2. Make 25% of appts bookable online?
It is now such a commonplace that we kind of assume everyone knows this: only about one third of patients seeking help from their GP need a face to face appointment.
Which means that if GP capacity is reserved for patients to decide for themselves to take a slot, two thirds will be wasted. So that’s 17% of GP capacity to be wasted by design. Maybe they will include telephone appointments, which would be less wasteful but still may not be appropriate.
Reserving any proportion for a single channel reduces equity of access: those with no online capability, often the most vulnerable and needy, are shut out of 25% of available capacity.
It could be so much better, simpler and cheaper.
Here’s what our practices are already doing:
1. When they are open, there is always capacity, so no need to call 111 to try for reserved slots. They won’t be used, but neither will the GPs waste the time, they’ll just crack on.
2. Make 100% of capacity available online – that’s normal, it’s what we do. But 100% of capacity is also available for patients who phone in – there is complete equity of access.
It’s the same capacity. But how it is used for each patient is up to the GP to decide, which they do in seconds through digital triage – they don’t even need to phone many patients.
It takes two to tango, and the tragic missed opportunity here is that both GPC and NHS are stuck in supply thinking: it’s all about pushing services at patients, wrapped up in complex funding rules.
Demand led thinking does exactly the reverse, understanding in great depth and detail the incoming demands and designing services around them. We’d get bucketloads of efficiency as well as astonishing performance if they did that. (Do call, best rates for hard up government departments)
Well, I always say that when they’ve tried everything else that doesn’t work, they’ll be back. Maybe before I’m dead.
New GP contract: more work, less output
Hurrah! NHS England and the BMA GPC have agreed a new contract covering the next five years.
Apparently there’s lots more money, funding for 22,000 addtional health workers in primary and community care, and everyone seems very happy with it. I couldn’t possibly digest the whole lot but will concentrate on what we know best.
This is going to increase GP workload and cut patient access.
How so? See the fine print in the IT and digital section.
1. NHS111 will have the right to book directly into 1 appointment slot per 3,000 patients (rounded down) per day.
Leave aside the technical issues, problems of policing the scheme and arguments over unused slots, late booking and so on, what would happen even if it did work perfectly?
In a traditional practice with more patient demand than available slots, they tend to be all booked up within minutes of reception opening. You know, we know, everybody knows.
So now what does the savvy patient do? Call NHS111. Go through all the palaver of identifying themselves, answering dozens of irrelevant yet scary questions, eventually landing with “I need to see the GP. And I have a right to one of those 2 appointments in my practice of 8,999 patients, today.”
Boom, they got it. But they got the second one and there is no way of telling the other 23 patients who were turned away by the practice, so all of them go through the NHS111 palaver again, but get the same message: all slots gone.
So we’ve wasted NHS and patients’ time, added a bunch of complexity, and increased GP capacity by precisely zero.
And by the way, what do GPs think of the ability of NHS111 to triage a patient and provide concise and relevant detail of the conversation? Do ask one.
2. Make 25% of appts bookable online?
It is now such a commonplace that we kind of assume everyone knows this: only about one third of patients seeking help from their GP need a face to face appointment.
Which means that if GP capacity is reserved for patients to decide for themselves to take a slot, two thirds will be wasted. So that’s 17% of GP capacity to be wasted by design. Maybe they will include telephone appointments, which would be less wasteful but still may not be appropriate.
Reserving any proportion for a single channel reduces equity of access: those with no online capability, often the most vulnerable and needy, are shut out of 25% of available capacity.
It could be so much better, simpler and cheaper.
Here’s what our practices are already doing:
1. When they are open, there is always capacity, so no need to call 111 to try for reserved slots. They won’t be used, but neither will the GPs waste the time, they’ll just crack on.
2. Make 100% of capacity available online – that’s normal, it’s what we do. But 100% of capacity is also available for patients who phone in – there is complete equity of access.
It’s the same capacity. But how it is used for each patient is up to the GP to decide, which they do in seconds through digital triage – they don’t even need to phone many patients.
It takes two to tango, and the tragic missed opportunity here is that both GPC and NHS are stuck in supply thinking: it’s all about pushing services at patients, wrapped up in complex funding rules.
Demand led thinking does exactly the reverse, understanding in great depth and detail the incoming demands and designing services around them. We’d get bucketloads of efficiency as well as astonishing performance if they did that. (Do call, best rates for hard up government departments)
Well, I always say that when they’ve tried everything else that doesn’t work, they’ll be back. Maybe before I’m dead.
Why take the risk, start now!
Harry Longman
01509 816293 / 07939 148618
PS We’ve been amazed by the views on our new video, Dr Barry Sullman talking about Balaam St Surgery.
He’s a traditional, local, digital-first practice. Fabulous.
What you can read next
They don’t want you to read this
Dear Mr Hunt
They can’t both be right