A BASINGSTOKE GP surgery has announced it is moving to a new online consultation system using automatic intelligence from September amid “increased waiting times and delays”.

Crown Heights Medical Centre, in the town centre, moved to a new GP triage system for all appointments in October 2022, because it said the traditional booking method of ‘first come, first served’ was “coming under pressure” due to the increase in demand from patients in recent years.

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However, it said funding has not matched this rise in demand and GP numbers have not increased, resulting in “increased waiting times and delays and significant pressure on our staff, clinicians and patients”.

While Crown Heights said this new system has had “some success”, it has now decided to change the process further to “provide even better service to our patients”.

From September, it will move to Klinik HealthCare Solutions to replace eConsult, which it hopes will “allow 100 per cent equality of access to all of our patients”.

In a message sent to patients, the surgery said its objectives of moving to a triage system last October were to optimise the use of GP time; re-instate on-the-day / pre-bookable service; and offer timely appointments for less urgent clinical matters.

It has asked patients to complete a survey sharing their opinion of how this change has progressed.

While it said the new system has had some success, it said it has struggled with the lack of detail submitted to the triaging GP via e-consultations, making it difficult to evaluate the information.

It said: “In addition, we have recognised we need to improve the data quality around demand and resource usage. This data will help us plan services and workforce more effectively, as we continue to recruit other clinicians to support our GPs.

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“We have been using eConsult since 2018 in line with most Hampshire surgeries. The system was procured for the whole county by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Commissioning Board. However, we now recognise, there to move forward we need to invest as a surgery in a new system.

“We have identified Klinik as the replacement to eConsult. This will be introduced in September and will allow 100 per cent equality of access to all of our patients.”

The new system will see all enquiries, whether online or by telephone, go through the same system and the same questions, allowing the practice team to prioritise the queries coming through effectively.

Clinical queries will be routed directly to the clinical team who will assess every query submitted before 4pm on the same day and make sure the patient knows the next step.

Automatic intelligence will assist the triage team and the patient by flagging up certain symptoms or conditions, so that any urgent queries are prioritised.

Klinik will also provide the surgery with information on the type of consultation so that the practice, over time, can amend its staffing mix to handle the work coming in most effectively.

Crown Heights has contracted a project manager from a surgery that has already successfully introduced Klinik, who will work with the practice from September.

The message to Crown Heights patients said: “Our expectation is that the system will take three to six months to bed in with both the surgery and patients.”