One million patient milestone reached by online consultation and workflow system askmyGP
One million patient requests have been managed by GP practices using the askmyGP online consultation and workflow system since September 2018. The system is used by practices across the UK with a combined list size of 545,485. Clinicians at the practices use the system’s online triage tools to prioritise and deliver care by secure message, telephone, video or face-to-face appointment.
64% of patients chose to contact their GP online via the practice website, while the remaining patients phoned their practice. Half of patient requests were completed by the practice in two hours or less, including requests made online outside normal surgery hours.
Patients asked for face-to-face appointments in only 25% of cases. 45% of patients asked to be contacted by the practice by phone and 30% asked for a secure message from their clinician.
On reviewing patient requests, clinicians decided to see 37% of patients face-to-face. 88% of patients who needed an appointment attended the practice on the day they contacted the practice.
Across the one million patient requests, 6.5% of patients on the practice list made contact each week.
The one millionth patient request was received by the Concord Medical Centre in Bristol, which has been using askmyGP to manage all of its patient requests for more than two years. Senior partner Dr Simon Bradley said: “With askmyGP we are getting through the work more efficiently and continuity of care has improved too, with more patients consulting with their preferred GP. There are days where all outstanding consultations have been completed by 5.30pm, allowing the duty GP to manage urgent problems and process late requests that otherwise would have been passed forward to the following day.”
Harry Longman, chief executive of GP Access Ltd, the company behind askmyGP, said: “This is a major milestone and we are delighted that askmyGP has enabled a million patients to get help sooner from their own GP. That’s only possible by making it easier for practices to understand, predict and manage patient demand much more flexibly, putting them in control of who they see and when, managing their resources appropriately for each patient.”
