Attempting to do more with the same level of physical, financial and people resources just doesn’t work. This is the sentiment of many of our customers. And bandwidth crunch over the winter period brings this into sharp focus.
According to the latest ONS winter survey, half a million more people – 18.3 million in total – tried to get a GP appointment in mid- to late February compared to earlier in the winter period between November 2022 to February 2023. This was an increase of 500,000 on the previous period, when 17.8 million people (34 percent) tried to make an appointment.
Lord Darzi’s findings in his verdict on the state of the service offers an illustration of the key systemic and structural issues beyond NHS leaders’ control. These include the failure to divert resources into more preventative care and the increasing pressure on primary care. There was a strong message that people can still find it difficult to access services and with winter months around the corner, it is likely that a failure in diverting resources will further add to failings and crisis.
NHS GPs burn themselves out trying to keep pace with winter. Upon closer inspection, there seem to be two main bottlenecks:
Patient access to appointments: The phone lines start to meltdown under the scale of requests, and the sheer volume of scheduling work puts both business and administrative teams under extreme pressure
Clinical bandwidth: When patient demand peaks, already stretched clinical resources can soon feel like they’re getting close to breaking point. And with the recent GP strikes it is only expected to get worse this winter.
Whether you are an NHS practice or primary care network (PCN), assuring quality of care while managing increased patient loads and navigating capacity is important. It’s why so many practices do such extensive surge planning in the lead up to winter months. If you are looking for a new way to manage your winter access, Livi can help.
Livi operates as a digital extension of the practice team and provides remote GP video appointments when a face-to-face appointment is not required. All Livi GPs are GMC-registered and can provide medical advice, prescriptions and referrals, and fit notes.
After every consultation, medical notes recorded by the Livi GP will be visible in the practice patient record. Livi integrates with existing pathways and processes, ensuring no disruption to practice workflows while also ensuring continuity of care for the patient.
Woosehill Medical Centre understands the urgency of Winter readiness planning. The Berkshire-based practice serves a registered patient list of 550,000 across the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group.
“Keeping up with patient demand is a struggle as appointments get booked up very quickly. It's nice on a Monday and Tuesday, which are our busiest days, for the team to have additional Livi appointments to offer our patients,” says the practice’s Reception Manager.
What’s more, functionality with a wide range of GP clinical systems has ensured a seamless integration with the practice’s existing ways of working.
“A huge benefit of Livi is how it works within EMIS,” continues Woosehill’s Reception Manager. “It’s just like booking with our own doctors and we can communicate with our clinicians directly as well through EMIS. It really helps.”
