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Tom Howseman is a GP Partner in a large urban practice in Northampton. When their number of GP partners fell from twelve to six due to retirements and they couldn’t recruit they decided to adopt a more multi-disciplinary approach. Over the last two years they have introduced and refined a system of pre-triage protocols which enable reception staff to collect information from patients presenting on the day which is then helpful to the pre-triage clinicians in directing those patients to the appropriate member of the emergency care team. 20,000 additional appointments have been created through this system and in this episode Tom explains how they have done it.

Show Notes

Tom describes his practice and why he developed a new way of working (0:50)

Expanding the multi-disciplinary team (1:48)

Two GPs on call for same-day demand (2:23)

Three potential problems with the then current triage system (3:04)

Introducing a Pre-Triage Process (3:48)

A simple example of how it works (4:20)

Identifying the ten most common reasons for demand and the clinical questions a receptionist can ask (4:57)

Let’s try it… (5:45)

The trial expands and becomes normal practice (6:13)

Protocols for receptionists to follow (7:14)

An example of the protocol (7:59)

A patient rings…what happens next (8:22)

Reducing the waits for patients (9:42)

The receptionists response to the system (10:14)

How the Emergency Care Team works (11:53)

The governance (13:25)

Evolving the system over two years (14:14)

The benefits to the practice (15:50)

The impact on recruitment, relationships and morale (16:46)

The response from patients (18:08)

How replicable is this system? (19:12)

How to begin? (20:42)

You can contact Tom via tom.howseman@nhs.net