Online Consultations - Video Guide

Video Transcript

I'm Doctor Hazel Blanchard, one of the partners here at Forest Medical Centre.

We've been using online triage since January 2024 and mostly been really receiving positive feedback from patients and we've noticed that the call numbers have gone down, so patients have been able to get through to the surgery quicker.

However, patients have given us feedback and so we've listened to that and we're going to be moving to a new triage model.

This means that we can patients can put in free text, they can talk about more than one problem on the same form.

So this is going to provide an easier way of patients contacting the surgery, an easy way of doing the form and an easy way of requesting perhaps the particular GP that they might like to see and follow up and continue their care.

Remember, the form allows you to put free text in and give the information that you want and ask the questions that you want.

You can tell us what you your concern is and what you think that you'll need.

It's going to be far simpler, a lot more straightforward to use and to happen is that GPS will triage all of the forms on a daily basis.

And then we will then contact you either by phone, text, or e-mail to let you know what the next step is going to be.

So everyone can use ACCURX triage, including for children, because you can complete forms on behalf of someone else.

What we would like is for every request to come through this way so that we can make it a fair access point for everyone.

So you'll be able to submit a routine request from 7am till 6:30pm every weekday.

Urgent requests will only be looked at until 4:30pm on the day, so if you have something that you feel needs to be dealt with on the day then please phone the surgery.

We can then prioritise according to our urgent criteria who needs to be seen After 4:30pm you may be asked to go to the walk in centre if we are full to capacity for that day.

You can tell us if you have an urgent need or routine need.

You could ask us for about a follow up appointment or if there's a preferred GP that you'd like to see.

It's not always possible for you to see your preferred GP but we absolutely will try and accommodate you if we can.

All admin requests are very welcome.

We'll continue to process these within the 72 hours is current expectation so you can call us.

You can speak to someone on reception and they can support you completing a form.

You can come into the surgery and we'll have an iPad for you to use the online access to complete your request.

We also can have paper copies as well so that you can do it in this way as well.

This system ensures that everyone has fair access to accessing their GP and clinical care that we want to provide at Forest Medical Centre.

Thanks for taking the time to watch these videos today and we hope that they will support you in accessing the best care that you can from us at Forest Medical Centre.

Published: Apr 9, 2025