‘Virtual docs’ are on the rise in Greater Manchester! Patients are benefitting from this by being able to see their GP through virtual appointments and online consultations. Trafford GP (Boundary House Medical Centre) is one of many practices that have embraced this new technology to help deliver primary care online and over the phone.
Transforming primary care in Greater Manchester
Coronavirus has highlighted the urgent need for more digital solutions to allow patients access to essential care from a general practice. The need to maintain social distancing and shielding has prevented those with health conditions attending face-to-face sessions with their GP. Practices across Greater Manchester (such as Trafford GP – Boundary House Medical Centre) may have found a solution to this problem…
More than 98% of GP practices across the Greater Manchester region have now rolled out video consultations and no longer rely on face-to-face appointments. More than 2,000 laptops, 1,500 webcams and 1,720 headsets have been sourced and delivered to practices across Greater Manchester (Source: Messenger Newspaper).
GP’s have described the changes as “transformational” to primary care
If you want a GP appointment today, there’s an app for that.
In the last few years, there has been a surge of online GP services that you can access from your smartphone or computer. In recent times these services have become an essential tool for GP’s so they can provide routine appointments to their patients. Practices can use data to predict when more people are likely to contact them for support and can plan for this by ensuring the capacity of the team can meet the demand.
The benefit of online consultations is the speed and convenience it provides. Seeing patient’s sooner means offering treatment at an earlier, often less serious, point in a person’s illness.
Most online services offer video or text-based appointments within a matter of hours.
In these troubling times, many individuals are unable to visit the homes of their loved ones due to fear of spreading the COVID-19 virus. This often leads to family members hiring Care Assistants to visit the homes of their loved ones to deliver personal and social care during pre-determined times through-out the week. When an elderly loved one or a loved one with complex physical or mental needs fall ill they must speedily receive the right care. Online GP consultations often offer a service where a consultation can be arranged on-the-day without the need to visit a centre surrounded by other ill individuals.
Sometimes it may be difficult for your elderly loved one to communicate their illness with a GP due to injury, cognitive decline, and long-term illnesses such as dementia. This is where a Care Assistant steps in to help and can inform GP’s of their current health condition. They can also explain their condition leading up-to the consultation. This is made possible through reading previous entries made by healthcare professionals in your loved ones care plan. At Beloved Homecare each client is assigned a care plan which describes in an easy, accessible way the needs of the person, their views, preferences and choices, the resources available, and actions by members of the care team, to meet your loved one’s needs. A care plan can be accessed by both family members and our care team. Our Carers are on-hand to provide this crucial information to a Trafford GP via our registered Care Manager during an online or over the phone consultation which will allow the GP to provide a well-informed course of treatment, sooner.
Our clients find peace of mind knowing that our amazing care team is on-hand to ensure their loved one doesn’t miss routine appointments that are critical to their loved one’s health and well-being.
Dr Jackson, a GP partner at Boundary House Medical Centre in Trafford explains how it has benefited their patients
Dr Paul Jackson has been using the digital services available to his practice and felt well prepared to adapt to the challenges of COVID-19. The practice has invested in the workflow system called askmyGP for the past 6 months. This has allowed patients to contact them digitally or over the phone.
Dr Jackson stated: “We are consistently seeing 75% of people contact us online and 25% over the phone. Both methods allow fast same-day access to a clinician of choice with no long waits for GPs. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive.”
“We also have been able to monitor potential COVID-19 patients by loaning out SAT monitors and daily contact by call, text or video to monitor vital signs. This has proved remarkably successful and we’ve been able to pick up deterioration rapidly.”
To ensure no patient is left behind, practices across the UK are adapting to digital transformation to ensure those who are social distancing and shielding can access essential care during the pandemic. Practices across Greater Manchester are now focusing on ensuring that the technologies are being deployed rapidly and are fully embedded. This helps improve outcomes for patients during COVID-19 and beyond.