30/09/2025
Many of you may see my writings in our Parish magazine on various topical medical issues. This comes as an extraordinary communication circular which the Long Stratton Partnership feels is essential in the context of what the Government is contractually enforcing us to do as of the 1st of October. Some of you may already be aware of it.
The NHS England website quotes
“From 1 October 2025 practices will be required to keep their online consultation tool open for the duration of core hours (8am – 6:30pm) for non-urgent appointment requests, medication queries and admin requests. This will be subject to necessary safeguards in place to avoid urgent clinical requests erroneously submitted online. Guidance will be displayed on practice websites and reflected in the wording of the patient charter.”
This change is beneficial on the face of it; however, the pitfalls are numerous and, at present, no guidance has come out to ensure patient safety and practice safety. Our medical association, the BMA, has reacted strongly by demanding that the Government halts the planned contract changes based on patient safety.
The Long Stratton Partnership has discussed this contractual obligation in detail and, after much deliberation based on the various benefits and challenges, we are launching the online consultation tool, System Connect, as of Monday the 6th October.
We have already gone through massive change in the practice as we moved from one software system to another, and it would only be fair to say that every face in the building shows the ‘not again’ expression, however there are positives to be seen in reducing the volume of telephone contacts and allowing us to triage more effectively to our Nursing, Mental Health, Social Prescriber, Physio and Pharmacist teams.
This process will involve one doctor being allocated for the morning every day from 08.30 – 12 Noon, to triage the requests that are submitted through our online consultation tool. This is a significant process change and it will mean that we will lose some capacity, until we can hopefully reap the benefits as we get more used to the system.
We ask you to bear with us. Use the forms appropriately for only routine requests. Keep any message short, specific, and add relevant information that will help the triage doctor make a safe decision.
Please do not place any urgent “on the day” appointment request through this portal as this is how the system will fail, and patient safety may be compromised.
We have also had to look at what some of us would call a plan B. In the situation where the online tool is bordering on unsafe in terms of the numbers needing to be triaged, we will communicate to you and close it down temporarily until the backlog is cleared.
I am hoping we never reach such a situation, however as we all know, the best laid plans can fail.
As always, please work with us and support us through this change. I will keep you updated.
Dr Mini Nelson – GP Partner
