**Exciting News** From 15th April 2024 Kearsley Medical Centre is making a significant change to our appointment system that will improve how we deliver healthcare services to you – we are moving to a Total Triage model. 

Total Triage is a new approach recommended by NHS England, 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? 

Traditionally, patients would call the surgery or visit the practice in person to book an appointment. More recently, we have been offering telephone appointments too. However, 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: 

• Care Navigation: We request that most patients begin to contact us via our website where they will be asked to complete a new, shorter online form when making a request. If you contact the practice with a concern, or to request an appointment, our trained receptionists will conduct an initial assessment by exploring what you have already requested via the online form and/or help you to complete this (if you are unable to). This process will allow us to assess your needs and ensure that you are directed to the most suitable person to care for you. This has been shown to utilise skills and resources across the whole practice team more appropriately. Some patients will be signposted to a suitable local service by our reception team, but most patients will have their questionnaire reviewed by a GP.   
• Total Triage: from the 15th April 2024 one of our experienced 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: Using digital communication will mean that you can engage with us from the comfort of your home or workplace. No more having to travel to the practice and possible long waits for simple enquiries or prescription renewals. If you haven’t already, please download the NHS App or make your requests online by filling in an online form.  
• Enhanced Patient Experience: We are committed to providing you with the best possible care at Kearsley Medical Centre. 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.  
• If you cannot use the internet for any reason, please call us – we will enter your details into our website for you. This may take longer than our previous system, so please be patient and only call if you cannot use our website. The same process will apply if you come into the surgery and ask at Reception.

How does this work for me?

After you send your appointment request on our website, if it is submitted before 2pm our doctors will review it on the same day and let you know the outcome as soon as they can. Requests submitted after 2pm will still be monitored by our team but if they are not medically urgent they will be responded to by the end of the next working day.

They may be able to help you without booking an appointment, or they may be able to help you on the phone or via video. If you need to be seen face to face, they will let you know the time and who you will see, taking into account your preferences and availability.

What do I do if you have no GP appointments left?

In the event that we run out of GP appointments, our reception team may arrange an appointment with a local pharmacist as part our pharmacy refer service or our local extended access service if suitable.

The Extended Access service is a groups of local practices working together to provide extra appointments at shared locations in evenings and weekends. It is a normal GP appointment but sometimes the doctor will be working in another local surgery and you will be asked to go there for your appointment.

If you are unable to book for a same day appointment or one of our alternative options and you feel your appointment cannot wait until the next day please call 111.

Thank you for working together with us on this new project to improve our patient access. We welcome your feedback and ideas moving forward. 

To book a routine appointment please complete an online form with a brief description of your problem, a GP will then triage this request and will contact you wihtin 48 hours with an outcome.

Emergency Appointments

Emergency appointments are available every day for medical problems which will not wait for the next available routine appointment.  Please call before 10am or submit an online form using the SystmConnect button above with a brief description of your problem.

If you have a non urgent medical problem please do not telephone the surgery but complete an Online Form for a doctor to triage.

Practice nurses have appointments for chronic disease annual reviews, cervical smear tests, holiday injections. They run childhood immunisation clinics. Please call the surgery and advise the receptionist you need a practice nurse appointment.  These appointments are not booked using our triage health forms.

Appointments are every morning from 08:05 to 11:00.

Home visits available on Monday and Wednesday afternoon for housebound patients.

Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and facilities available, we do appreciate this is not always possible. In this respect, if you do need a home visit, you can help us by calling the practice before 10:30.  DO NOT USE THE TRIAGE HEALTH FORMS for a home visit request, please ring the reception team and ask for a home visit.

You may only request a home visit if you are housebound. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed. Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls

You can also be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP.

It is important that you inform the reception staff if you are unable to attend your appointment, this will allow that appointment to be offered to another patient. If you fail to notify the Practice that you are unable to attend, you will be sent a letter or text informing you that you have defaulted from your appointment. Persistent defaulters maybe removed from the list.

You can also complete our appointment cancellation notification request form or cancel through the NHS App or other apps.. This can only be used if your appointment has been arranged for more than 24 hours in advance. (excluding weekends and public holidays). You can also text to cancel your appointment or use the link at the top of the page to cancel your appointment.

We have a texting service which allows you to receive confirmation and reminders about your appointments.

To have this service you will need to register by completing a consent form.

Please remember to update your contact details with us when you change address, telephone numbers and email address.

Changes to our Enhanced Access Service

From 1 October, there will be some small changes to the appointments that we make available for our patients during the evenings and weekends. These changes are being made to ensure we meet the requirements set by NHS England. We have worked closely with Bolton GP Federation (who provide these appointments on our behalf) to make sure they meet your needs too.

 What’s the same:

 We will still provide evening and weekend appointments for you during the following times:

• Monday to Friday, 6:30pm to 9:30pm
• Saturdays 9am to 5pm
• Sundays 9am to 5pm (Farnworth & Kearsley PCN only)*

The Enhanced Access Team is made up of lots of different specialists, that have been specially selected to meet patients’ needs, and appointments will be booked for with the most appropriate clinician, which could include a GP, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Nurse, Health Care Assistant, Mental Health Practitioner or Physiotherapist.

Patients will be offered the choice of both face-to-face and telephone appointments.

What’s different:

• Patients will be able to access face-to-face appointments closer to home at Farnworth & Kearsley

• Bank holiday appointments will no longer be provided by this service. However, should you need support from a GP on a Bank Holiday, you can still contact the out of hours service on 0161 763 8940 or the 111 service.

Practice receptionists will ensure that patients needing this service can access the available appointments. To book an appointment, patients should contact their GP practice 01204 462200

This is not a walk-in service; therefore these non-urgent and routine appointments must be booked in advance through your own GP surgery. Please speak to your GP receptionist for more information

If you wish to cancel your appointment please contact your GP practice, if your practice is closed, please telephone 0161 763 8941 to cancel.

Here at the practice we will be offering extended access appointments on Thursday and Friday mornings, 6.30am - 8.00am with GP and nurse appointments available.  Please contact the surgery to book.