The Practice has now changed our online triage and communications tool to Anima.
Anima is a secure online system that helps us manage appointment requests and admin queries more efficiently.
This service will be open 8:00am to 6:30pm from Monday to Friday.
The purpose of the triage system is to assess the urgency and best course of treatment for every patient’s medical request.
Our triage team is made up of GP's, who will review medical requests and make all clinical decisions on patient care. These clinicians are supported by senior administration colleagues, who will work under the direction of these clinicians to help process patient requests. This allows the clinicians in the triage team to focus on ensuring people receive the best care to meet their needs – less time on paperwork and have more time for helping patients.
We also receive Admin requests through Anima like we currently do and our admin colleagues in the triage team will be there to deal with these admin requests directly, allowing the clinicians to focus on triaging medical requests.
Anima allows patients to choose how they want to request services from us, makes it easier to manage patient requests and enables better continuity of care for those who need it.
Anima's online triage forms do capture more information from patients, so it may take you more time to complete these forms, but this information is necessary and will help your GP who reviews the form and will help us to reduce the number of times we have to respond back to you to ask for more information and enable better more informed care quicker.
In the long term, we expect that this new system will also mean a shorter waits on the phone and in the surgery queue, as more patients will be able to contact us online without the need to speak to our reception team. We will still continue to man our telephones and this will always remain an option in contacting the surgery.
Online Consultation System
You can continue to get in touch with us the way you do currently, or if you prefer you can use the below online form to request an appointment without having to ring the surgery.
You can also use the form to request:
- Fit (sick) notes
- A query about a prescription request
(please continue to submit repeat prescription requests in the usual way)
- Routine care appointment (Smears, Vaccinations, Medication Reviews)
- Test results
- Updates on referrals
- Private letter from your GP (there is a charge for these)
For medical requests your request will be reviewed by a member of staff who will book an appropriate appointment based on your request form or pass onto a GP.
You will then receive a message or telephone call from a member of staff with an appointment.
For admin requests your request will be reviewed by a member of staff who will respond, or depending on the query they may: book an appropriate appointment or they may need to pass this onto an appropriate clinician.
The form will be open daily from 8:00am to 6:30pm Monday to Friday.
(if the form is closed you will still need to contact the surgery on 01246 277287)
Please note all messages sent into the surgery are saved onto your medical record.
DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE FOR URGENT CLINICAL APPOINTMENTS OR REVIEWS. THESE REQUESTS SHOULD STILL BE MADE BY TELEPHONE OR ATTENDING THE PRACTICE IN PERSON.
You must be registered with this GP surgery in order to use this service. DO NOT use this service to request an appointment if its for any of the other services based at wheatbridge such as Sexual Health, Podiatry or Dentistry as we cannot help with these requests. Please contact these departments directly.
If you have sent in an online consultation a member of staff will contact you back on the same day for medical and admin requests. Admin requests submitted out of core hours will be responded to on the next working day. This response may be to offer an appointment / advice or to signpost to a nearby service e.g pharmacy. Our response may be via SMS or telephone call.
To avoid double bookings, and to free up capacity on our telephone lines, if you have already sent a request online then please wait for the Surgery to contact you back regarding your request. If an online request has already been received, another appointment may not be offered over the phone.
Appointments with a Doctor or Nurse:
We work hard as a team to provide good appointment availability, we realise how important it is for patients to have quick access to an available appointment slot. There are several appointment lines into the surgery and when they are busy there is a queuing system, and you will be informed where you are in the queue or given the option to leave the queue and receive an automatic call back when a receptionist is available.
Our Staff always try to answer the lines promptly but there will obviously be times of high demand where a short wait is inevitable.
Our appointment system allows patients to pre-book an appointment up to 6 weeks in advance. Routine appointments are usually available within a few days, however this situation may change during busy periods.
For genuinely urgent medical problems that cannot wait, patients will normally be seen on the same day.
When requesting an appointment, the receptionist will confirm your contact details, and to help the Doctor or Nurse, our receptionists will ask patients for basic details of the nature of the problem. This is asked so that calls can be prioritised appropriately based on clinical need. You can of course decline to give this information.
When you have booked an appointment with one of our Doctors for a call back, our Doctors will try 2 times to get in touch with you on your chosen telephone number. if they cannot get in touch with you after the 2nd time they will mark the call as failed encounter.
DNA's
It is essential to make the best use of the clinicians’ availability to ensure that all patients have access to appointments within an acceptable time frame. Within general practice, failure to attend appointments is commonplace. It is therefore essential that an efficient management system is in place.
When a patient fails to attend an appointment or fails to notify this organisation 24 hours prior to the scheduled appointment of the need to cancel or change the appointment, it is referred to as a Did Not Attend (DNA) or Was Not Brought (WNB).
All DNAs are to be recorded on the clinical system in the individual’s healthcare record using the relevant did not attend snomed code.
This organisation will review DNA statistics on a regular basis
In order to reduce the number of DNAs, the organisation offers:
Easy cancellation: Rapid access is provided for patients who wish to contact the organisation to cancel an appointment, with a dedicated phone option, a text message service and online cancellation functionality.
Appointment reminders: Patients are sent a text message to remind them about a forthcoming appointment. The reminder includes an explanation of how to cancel the appointment if it is no longer wanted.
Should a patient fail to attend their appointment without notice, this will be recorded as: Did not attend – SNOMED CT ID 281399006.
Should a patient advise that they need to cancel an appointment, although less than 24 hours’ notice is given, this will be recorded as: Appointment cancelled by patient – SNOMED CT ID - 185332005
It should be noted that, while unacceptable in most cases, there may be extenuating circumstances as to why the patient failed to attend their appointment. Therefore, prior to any letter being sent to a patient, it would be reasonable to discuss this with their clinician.
Should there not be any mitigating reasons, then a letter explaining the DNA will be sent to the patient using the template at Annex A. If the patient fails to attend a second appointment within a 12-month period, and should there be no reasonable mitigating circumstances, a further letter will be sent to the patient using the template at Annex B.
Should the patient then fail to attend a third appointment within the same 12-month period, a decision will be made by the management team as to whether the patient is to be removed from the organisation’s list.
Prior to writing to the patient using the template at Annex C, the senior GP will assess whether removing the patient from the organisation’s list would be detrimental to the patient’s health or wellbeing and cause significant harm. Should the decision be made to remove the patient from the list, the organisation will consider this BMA guidance.
Letters sent to patients are only valid for a 12-month period.
Link to full policy: Practice DNA ( Did Not Attend) PROTOCOL (DOCX, 142KB)
Extended Access Appointments
Information on the extended access appointments
Times
You can Book Appointments Online at:
systmonline.tpp-uk.com
www.nhsapp.service.nhs.uk/login
Appointments booked online should be for routine reasons only. Do not use the online booking facility should you need a private appointment or for any insurance/solicitor or medical appointments. which generally need to be agreed with the practice before and will incur a private fee and need longer than a standard appointment slot. To book these please call reception as usual and they will arrange this for you.
NHS App
You can now use the NHS App, a simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services and your GP account on your smartphone or tablet.
You can use the NHS App to check your symptoms and get instant advice, book appointments, order repeat prescriptions, view your GP medical record, access your Covid vaccination status and more.
If you already use online access you can continue to use it. You can use the NHS App as well.
For more information go to www.nhs.uk/nhsapp
Pharmacy First
Accessing Pharmacy First services
The following table shows the 7 conditions pharmacists can manage across various age ranges.
| Clinical pathway |
Age range |
| Acute otitis media (Middle Ear infection) |
1 to 17 years |
| Impetigo |
1 year and over |
| Infected insect bites |
1 year and over |
| Shingles |
18 years and over |
| Sinusitis |
12 years and over |
| Sore throat |
5 years and over |
| Uncomplicated urinary tract infections |
Women 16 to 64 years |
Patients will be able to access the 7 clinical pathways element via referrals from referring organisations including general practice, urgent and emergency care settings, and NHS 111 (online and via telephone). In addition, for the 7 common conditions clinical pathway consultations only, patients can access the service by attending or contacting the pharmacy directly without the need for referral.
Providing high quality health and care services
For the above 7 common conditions, pharmacists will follow a robust clinical pathway which includes self care and safety-netting advice and, only if appropriate, supplying a restricted set of prescription only medicines without the need to visit a GP.
These clinical pathways have been developed with input from various experts including practising GPs, pharmacists, and antimicrobial resistance specialists as well as representatives from national organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and UK Health Security Agency. This ensures that the steps we take together match the care patients would receive in general practice and follow the latest national guidelines.
Pharmacies have private consultation rooms that can be used for consultations with patients, and pharmacists can see patients for clinical services without always needing an appointment.
Every pharmacist trains for 5 years in the use of medicines and managing minor illnesses, so they are well equipped to provide health and wellbeing advice to help people stay well. They are also experienced in spotting warning signs, otherwise known as red flag symptoms, which may warrant a referral to another healthcare provider.
After a consultation with the pharmacist, the pharmacy will send a notification to the patient’s GP on the same day or on the following working day.
Further information
111 Service in Derbyshire
999 is for emergencies only and should not be used for seeking advice as the 111 service is available 24 hours a day to assist.
Patient advice is available via the 111 service 24 hours a day. They will provide help with enquiries about health information, checking your symptoms, winter welling and various health topics, such as sexual health and men's/women's health.
They can also be called for advice when the surgery is closed. Information about whether you need to see a pharmacist/GP or may need an ambulance is available. Depending on your circumstances they may send out a clinician or ask you to go to one of the Walk-in centres, staffed by 111 medical staff. Pharmacists are also available to answer questions about colds, the flu and other day to day or seasonal ailments.
Cancelling or changing an appointment
If you can not make your appointment let us know as soon as you can so another patient can book the appointment time. You can cancel or change your appointment:
Home Visits
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 reception before 10.00am.
You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. 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. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.