GP Appointment System Changes – 18th August
From 18th August 2025, our appointment system is changing.
Why?
- We need to ensure equity of access, whether you come to the desk, via econsult or via the telephone.
- We have an imbalance of same day and pre bookable appointments, meaning we have a huge 8am rush for appointments.
- Our did not attend rate is high sitting between 7- 9% monthly
- NHS England is promoting the use of “total triage” however we do not feel this is right currently for our patient population. This is a small step towards creating better access and triage.
- We need to ensure safe working practice for our doctors.
What is changing?
- We will run a duty doctor model. This means that one of our doctors will only see urgent “on the day” work as well as manage our urgent housebound patients every day.
- We will be using a red/amber/green triage model for appointments, with care navigators asking more questions at the time of call or when you come to the desk.
- You will be offered an appointment based on the urgency of your medical need
- Red appointments are urgent, amber 1-5 days and green 7-14 days.
- The doctors created our triage model, questions and all of the processes that sit within our new process.
- You will be unable to book appointments for GPs more than 2 weeks in advance. The doctor will either send you a self booking link or you will be asked to make contact closer to the time of your review appointment. This is due to the fact that our “did not attend rate”, sits highest with our review appointments.
What is important to know..
- We aren’t changing our capacity, we are just changing the way we manage our appointments. What this means is that there wont be a scramble at 8am to get an appointment.
- We will encourage the use of econsult where possible. As this allows us to collate more information about your problem. This then gives us more information to triage from.
- As with any change, this will take time to embed and we thank you for your patience and understanding.
If you have any questions about any of this or want to feedback at any point, please contact prudhoemedicalgroup@nhs.net where your comments will be passed onto the management team.
