Boundary House Practice

Redmoor Health initially looked at the current use of GP Online Services and the NHS App and found the following:

• Online booking of appointments had been disabled during the Covid pandemic, to avoid unnecessary footfall into practice by patients booking for routine issues that could be handled remotely, and a total-triage model was adopted
• The actual ordering of medications online was low compared to the number of patients enabled to do so.

The Practice Manager was informed how this data can be accessed via the Patient Online Management Information dashboard and was also shown figures specifically relating to the NHS App. These figures can be seen below.

Appointments Bookable Online: Enabled 27.20%, Usage 0% (no online bookable appointments offered since March 2020 and low numbers prior to this)

Repeat Prescriptions: Patient Enabled = 26.58%, Usage = 1.44% (77 requests)

Detailed Coded Record (DCR): Enabled = 0.62%, Usage 28.76% (1542 views) – The low percentage of patients enabled to view DCR in comparison to actual views demonstrates a small number of patients often making use of being able to view their record.

Redmoor Health held a meeting with the practice where we discussed opportunities to improve uptake and use of GP online services, including the use of the NHS App. This would help to reduce calls and traffic into the practice to arrange, for example, appointments, order medications, and view test results.

We also recommended re-introducing online booking of some appointments to try and alleviate busy telephone lines. A template message was shared, that could be adapted and sent to patients ordering medications via email or telephone, as a way of signposting to online services and with a link to the NHS App as the preferred method of ordering.

• There has been an increase in both the number of patients enabled to book appointments and order medications online.
• At present, online booking of appointments has not been re-introduced, as the practice is running a total triage system. There is an opportunity however for some online booking of appointments to begin to be made available, such as cervical screening or other treatment room procedures.
• The number of patients enabled to order medications online has increased from 26.58% to 29.89% (as of May 2022), however, the practice recognises there is scope for further increase.
• The total number of registrations for the NHS App by Boundary House patients is now 1524 (as of July 2022). The number of new NHS App registrations per month has declined (there were 65 new registrations in July 2022), however, this is a common theme across general practice as new registrations peaked late in 2021 due to the availability of the Covid pass on the NHS App.

The number of Boundary House patients now registered for the NHS App represents a significant opportunity to expand the use of online services, saving practice time and offering convenience to patients. The practice has been contacted again recently and a review will be arranged within the next couple of months to follow up on progress made and offer further support with the promotion of and signposting to online services via frontline staff, website and social media. A starting point would be to review the 30% of patients already enabled to order medications online and contact the ones who are still ordering via other methods. Boundary House does now have social media presence in the form of a Facebook page and is continuing to work on digital transformation.