Health chiefs are seeking views to help design the future of GP practice consultations following new ways of working during Covid-19.
NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) across County Durham, South Tyneside and Sunderland are working together to review patient’s experiences of online and digital healthcare, since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. Following the outbreak GPs, nurses and hospital staff are now using alternative, safer ways to consult with patients including telephone, online and video consultations.
NHS County Durham chief officer, Dr Stewart Findlay, said: “In effect Coronavirus brought an end to traditional face-to-face consultation almost overnight and the speed in which GPs and other health care professionals had to implement changes, to ensure that patients continued to receive safe access to healthcare, has been incredible. “Before the crisis GPs were seeing almost 90 per cent of patients face-to-face – now all our practices are using remote consultations with 80 percent taking place by telephone, video or e-mail – it has been a complete reversal and one that has shown how the future of healthcare could look”. Feedback from the survey, which closes on July, 3, 2020, will be used to help understand people’s views on accessing GP practices during Covid, how continued improvements to services could be made and to encourage more people to use digital clinical consultations in the future. “Covid-19 has really accelerated the adoption of a ‘digital front door’ for patients,” added Dr Findlay. “We now need to seek the views of as many people as possible to ensure that any new systems introduced post Covid, work for as many people as possible.” To access the online survey visit: https://involvement.sunderlandccg.nhs.uk/surveys/1 All feedback will be treated in strictest confidence and does require any personal information. For any further questions email: SUNCCG.sccg@nhs.net.
