We have a made a significant change to our appointment system that will improve how Village Health Group delivers healthcare services to you from 3rd June 2024 – we are moving to a Total Triage model.
Our aim is to improve accessibility to Primary Care services. The main objectives are to enhance the quality of care our patients receive, to ensure that they are given the most appropriate appointment or advice to meet their needs and that this is done in a timely way.
What is Total Triage?
The demand for appointments has increased hugely in recent years, and General Practice must address the issue of capacity, to maintain patient safety and satisfaction.
Total Triage introduces three essential components:
- Total Triage: one of our GPs will review each patient request to decide which member of our healthcare team is best placed to help, the most suitable time frame for the appointment and whether this is best suited to be via telephone or in person at the practice. Where necessary, we might ask you to answer a few additional online questions to help our clinicians prioritise those patients who need more urgent care. As well as offering GP appointments, following GP assessment, some patients will also be directed to other clinicians in the practice such as one of our clinical pharmacy team, our practice nurse or our first contact physiotherapist. By ensuring that patients reach the right person in a timely way, our clinicians will be available to answer your questions, provide clinical advice, and offer prescription renewals much more efficiently than before.
- Face-to-face Appointments: We understand the importance of face-to-face appointments for many patients. Total Triage ensures that the practice makes the best use of these, with GPs and other clinicians. Often telephone consultations work well both for patients and clinicians, and we now have excellent facilities to view photographs sent from your mobile phone which are extremely helpful to support best care.
How does this benefit you?
We understand that change can sometimes be difficult, but we are confident that Total Triage will bring many benefits to you, our patients – for example:
- Improved Access to Care: Total Triage has been shown to reduce waiting times and it enables us to attend to your medical needs more promptly. By using remote consultations, where appropriate, we can free up face to face appointments for those patients that need them.
- Convenience: We recognise that telephone access into the practice is not sufficient, with some patient experiencing long waits times. Using digital communication will mean that you can engage with us without having to call the surgery or travel to the practice and experience possible long waits for simple enquiries or prescription renewals.
- Enhanced Patient Experience: We are committed to providing you with the best possible care at Village health group. Total Triage improves communication and ensures that you see the person best able to help you, in a timely way.
- Embracing Innovation: As healthcare technology advances, we are committed to staying at the forefront of these innovations. Total Triage will enable us to adapt and evolve with the changing healthcare landscape and ensure that you benefit from the latest advances in medical care.
What if I have trouble using the new system?
- We hope to support patients and their families/carers to get used to the new way of contacting the practice and to become comfortable with this over time
- We will, of course, provide additional support to those patients who are unable to use online resources.
We have been rolling out these changes gradually, and our team is here to guide and support you every step of the way.
Thank you for working together with us on this new project to improve our patient access. We welcome your feedback and ideas moving forward.
Please find below our user guide.