Doctors in Stratford district achieving waiting time targets
A CHECK-UP on GP waiting times in the Stratford area shows the district is in good health.
That’s in contrast to some other parts of the country where patients are having to wait several days to see a doctor and some surgeries are even considering cutting down on appointments because of low GP numbers and staff costs.
According to the British Medical Association there were 37,177 GPs working in the NHS in England in January but the service is under pressure because of increasing patient numbers with some GPS in the NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board responsible for p numbers ranging from 1,868 to 2,272 patients per doctor as calculated by the Nuffield Trust.
Average waiting times in Stratford are generally better than in other health authorities.
At Stratford Trinity Court Surgery in can be two to three days and at Rother House Medical Centre appointments are available throughout the day during normal opening hours with urgent medical cases assessed on a face-to-face basis with doctors and nurse the same day.
Shipston Medical Centre offers face-to-face appointments, telephonic consultations and advice via a triage form online but for those without online access, reception staff will complete the form on the patient’s behalf which is reviewed by a GP within one working day.
Henley Medical Centre and Alcester Health Centre have appointments available throughout the day and operate a similar online consultation service and there is a duty doctor system at all surgeries to deal with patients who are acutely unwell and require medical attention the same day.
Doctor Paul Daniel of Shipston Medical Centre told the Herald how the medical centre’s appointments system continues to evolve to suit patients’ needs and helps spread GP workloads.
“We have a completely new system in place and it’s much simpler for patients to use. The previous online system was very complicated went on and on with questions and you ended up down a rabbit hole. This new system asks straightforward questions like what kind of help do you need? Your contact details? And it asks open questions for patients to answer. If they don’t have online access they can still ‘phone reception and brief someone to fill in the form for them. The duty team hub at the medical centre then rate the enquiry to assess waiting times and appointments. Red is acute – same day. Amber, five days and a face-to-face appointment. These two are interchangeable. Green is rated as a routine appointment for example a medication review. This system avoids the 8am rush of telephone calls to reception and it works really well. The feedback from patients has been very positive but - again - it’s not a problem if people can’t do it online they can still ‘phone in,” Doctor Daniel said.
If Stratford and south Warwickshire’s average waiting times are good the outlook in neighbouring Gloucestershire is different.
According to a new study by personal injury expert, Claims.co.uk, NHS Gloucestershire patients have to wait the longest for a GP appointment in the country where 590,000 appointments took over 22 days (12.29 per cent) giving it top of ranking out of 10 England locations with the highest number of GP appointments that took over 22 days.
NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board is in the top five lowest number of GP appointments that took over 22 days, ranked at number three with 234,657 (3.08 per cent).
In a further development it has emerged that some Gloucestershire GP surgeries may have to cut appointments due to staff costs. The Local Medical Committee said GPs now have 1,975 patients each on average. Across the county, there are 349 full-time equivalent GPs serving a population of just under 690,000 patients but without extra funding - which is needed - the service remains under pressure leaving some difficult decisions to be considered and possibly made.
Back in south Warwickshire, Doctor Daniel added: “We are doing very well with GP waiting times in this area. We also have options where patients can consult with a specialist pharmacist, be treated at a Minor Injuries Unit, there’s increased emphasis on mental health, wellbeing and frailty issues and there are a lot more other services being rolled out.”
