Our crazy appointment system
Our appointment system may seem difficult to understand when you can't get the appointment you want. Why is it there is no appointment with the doctor of your choice at the time and day you want?
It seems as if it is a problem at most practices and ultimately does come down to supply and demand.
We do try our best and have changed and tinkered with the appointment system many times over the last 30 years.
Firstly we offer the most ways currently available to access the appointments: in person of course, by phone (and we have many incoming lines), using an automated phone keypad operated system called Patient Partner (did you know this works even outside surgery hours?) and online - you can easily register for this from the main website - and this also operates all the time the computer is not backing up.
We offer standard appointments bookable up to three weeks in advance. A proportion of appointments for each doctor is held back for on the day booking (these are still bookable by Patient Partner and online). We do suggest you try and stick to one doctor, particularly for one problem as you will get to know each other and it makes for the most efficient use of the time you have available. As a doctor it is far better to know and understand a patient and their past and present problems and to follow through a complex series of examinations, tests, referrals and follow up without having to read through lots of notes and letters to pick up in the middle of something.
For urgent problems we offer Rapid Access Appointments. The receptionist will ask you if your problem is "urgent for today". If so you will be offered the choice of a telephone consultation (make sure you keep your phone available!) or a face to face appointment with the duty doctor - one of the regular doctors in rotation. We do ask you to try and keep to the urgent problem only as the duty doctor usually has a heavy workload and will need to see many people as quickly as possible. You will be given a time for your appointment and we do try and see people in turn but sometimes due to the variable demand and the need to prioritise you may have to wait a while. If the doctor has not called anyone for a bit it is likely they have been doing phone consultations or speaking to a hospital or social services.
Here is a cute diagram of how it all works.
How do you provide the appointment of choice with the 9 doctors we have for the 11,500 people on our practice list? It does seem like an unequal equation!
There are of course large swings in demand- a winter flu or norovirus outbreak pushes up demand rapidly. Weather changes, holidays and other things all make a big difference and make planning tricky. You probably won't be aware of this but we often add additional appointment sessions when there is high demand.
We have measured the number of appointments required - there is a natural rise and fall in demand through the week so we plan more appointments to match at those times and we aim to have enough appointments each day and each week to satisfy all the predicted demand. Matching capacity to demand in this way is the basis of the modified 'Advanced Access' model we run.
The traditional model is to supply a fixed amount of whatever is available and then fit the patients into what is offered. Most surgeries and hospitals do that. This inevitably causes a mis-match between supply and demand and leads to build-ups and blocks in the system and is why waiting lists develop.
So each day at Willow Tree looks a bit different and the doctors run a flexible rota, so they have to keep a close check on their diaries in order to turn up at the right time! They also have to work at Fryent Medical Centre (until our new building is open) and attend the many meetings currently reorganising the health service as well as time for admin and not all the doctors are full-time and so you may not always be able to see your usual doctor at the time you want.
We gave 37,000 face to face appointments last year and another 10,000 telephone consultations and so we do have a lot of work to do to satisfy everyone. Our surveys do show that most patients are happy most of the time but inevitably there will be some people who are not given what they want. The only away for that to be avoided would be to have a large excess of capacity so that there are always free appointments for every doctor on every day for booking any time. Given the significant cutbacks in funding we are having to cope with, that is not going to be possible for the foreseeable future. So we have to be ever more creative with the resources we have.
If you have any suggestions or ideas for improvement we'd always be pleased to hear from you and of course out Patient Group is a great place to try and make your influence count.
Meanwhile we hope to continue to provide you with the best service we can.
It seems as if it is a problem at most practices and ultimately does come down to supply and demand.
We do try our best and have changed and tinkered with the appointment system many times over the last 30 years.
Firstly we offer the most ways currently available to access the appointments: in person of course, by phone (and we have many incoming lines), using an automated phone keypad operated system called Patient Partner (did you know this works even outside surgery hours?) and online - you can easily register for this from the main website - and this also operates all the time the computer is not backing up.
We offer standard appointments bookable up to three weeks in advance. A proportion of appointments for each doctor is held back for on the day booking (these are still bookable by Patient Partner and online). We do suggest you try and stick to one doctor, particularly for one problem as you will get to know each other and it makes for the most efficient use of the time you have available. As a doctor it is far better to know and understand a patient and their past and present problems and to follow through a complex series of examinations, tests, referrals and follow up without having to read through lots of notes and letters to pick up in the middle of something.
For urgent problems we offer Rapid Access Appointments. The receptionist will ask you if your problem is "urgent for today". If so you will be offered the choice of a telephone consultation (make sure you keep your phone available!) or a face to face appointment with the duty doctor - one of the regular doctors in rotation. We do ask you to try and keep to the urgent problem only as the duty doctor usually has a heavy workload and will need to see many people as quickly as possible. You will be given a time for your appointment and we do try and see people in turn but sometimes due to the variable demand and the need to prioritise you may have to wait a while. If the doctor has not called anyone for a bit it is likely they have been doing phone consultations or speaking to a hospital or social services.
Here is a cute diagram of how it all works.
How do you provide the appointment of choice with the 9 doctors we have for the 11,500 people on our practice list? It does seem like an unequal equation!
There are of course large swings in demand- a winter flu or norovirus outbreak pushes up demand rapidly. Weather changes, holidays and other things all make a big difference and make planning tricky. You probably won't be aware of this but we often add additional appointment sessions when there is high demand.
We have measured the number of appointments required - there is a natural rise and fall in demand through the week so we plan more appointments to match at those times and we aim to have enough appointments each day and each week to satisfy all the predicted demand. Matching capacity to demand in this way is the basis of the modified 'Advanced Access' model we run.
The traditional model is to supply a fixed amount of whatever is available and then fit the patients into what is offered. Most surgeries and hospitals do that. This inevitably causes a mis-match between supply and demand and leads to build-ups and blocks in the system and is why waiting lists develop.
So each day at Willow Tree looks a bit different and the doctors run a flexible rota, so they have to keep a close check on their diaries in order to turn up at the right time! They also have to work at Fryent Medical Centre (until our new building is open) and attend the many meetings currently reorganising the health service as well as time for admin and not all the doctors are full-time and so you may not always be able to see your usual doctor at the time you want.
We gave 37,000 face to face appointments last year and another 10,000 telephone consultations and so we do have a lot of work to do to satisfy everyone. Our surveys do show that most patients are happy most of the time but inevitably there will be some people who are not given what they want. The only away for that to be avoided would be to have a large excess of capacity so that there are always free appointments for every doctor on every day for booking any time. Given the significant cutbacks in funding we are having to cope with, that is not going to be possible for the foreseeable future. So we have to be ever more creative with the resources we have.
If you have any suggestions or ideas for improvement we'd always be pleased to hear from you and of course out Patient Group is a great place to try and make your influence count.
Meanwhile we hope to continue to provide you with the best service we can.
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