Continuity

The doctor will see you now. Not just any doctor but your doctor. Continuity of care is back and taking Living Well by storm! 

All of our patients are now grouped into one of 12 GP teams, and patients have been allocated to their nearest surgery. 

Each surgery has two or three GP teams that include clinical and support staff such as care coordinators and administrators. 

When you send in an eConsult it is reviewed by your GP team. Your GP will decide how quickly you need to be seen, and by whom. For example a new presentation of chronic fatigue will generate a face to face GP appointment. 

The new system rolled out in March and patients are happier. Knowing that you don’t have to repeat yourself because your GP already knows your story is a weight off many patients’ minds. Continuity between doctor and patient builds relationships and trust. 

Not every illness needs a GP. For example, an earache will be treated by our Urgent Care team and a prescription query will be sent to our Medicines team; our expert Mental Health team treats patients with anxiety and depression and our Advanced Physiotherapists assess back and joint symptoms. But more complex and ongoing problems are handled by our GPs. 

On occasions when your GP is not working your eConsult will still be processed, but you may be asked to wait until your GP is back unless of course your query is clinically urgent. 

Quality

This year we have recorded our best ever set of health measures for our patient population. 

This is remarkable for two reasons, firstly because we have exceeded our pre-pandemic achievements, and secondly because we merged mid-year with West End Surgery.

Here are some of our results for the 2022/23 NHS year: 

  • We have over 2,500 diabetics. 92.3pc have had an annual check up, including foot health screening, with 92.2pc of patients showing good control and two thirds showing very good control. 
  • Of nearly 3,000 asthmatics 82.8pc attended an annual review appointment to review and adjust inhaler control. 83.5pc of new asthmatics attended the surgery for state of the art spirometry and FeNO testing. 
  • 94.3pc of patients with serious mental illness attended for an annual physical health check and 88.4pc discussed their mental health care plan with one of our practitioners. 
  • 8,400 female patients were eligible for cervical screening (smear tests) and 80pc of our patients took this up. 
  • We provided over 6,000 flu jabs to over-65s, 88.2pc of eligible patients. 
  • We referred 1,440 (3pc) patients to a community pharmacist for support with their minor illness, freeing up appointments with our practice staff. 
  • 80.5pc of our 241 patients with a learning disability took up an offer of an annual health check. 

Overall we achieved 94pc in our annual quality targets, the highest achievement amongst our neighbouring city practice networks. This is great news for patients who are registered with us.