We may ask you about your health issue when you call to book an appointment.
This is called Care Navigation.
It's about helping you get the service you need.
Our specially trained reception team may suggest other professionals that could help you better.
- Nurse
- Pharmacist
- Community Services
- Wellbeing support
- Voluntary services and other groups
Helping you get the right care
When you ring to book an appointment, you might notice our reception team will ask you for a brief outline of how we can help you.
This is because we have introduced something called Care Navigation. It means our reception team has been trained to ensure they can help you to find the best service for your needs, so you can receive the right care more quickly. Anything you share with our team will be kept confidential.
Through this specialist training, our team will be able to direct you to the most appropriate clinician or service for your needs.
Our reception team will never offer clinical advice. Instead, this new way of working is about offering you the choice to see more appropriate professionals in our practice team or even somewhere else. If they can deal with the problem directly, it will often be quicker and means you may not need to see a GP at all.
By working this way, it helps to free-up time for GPs to care for patients with complex or serious health conditions that can only be managed by a doctor. More importantly though, it means people are seen first by the clinician that is best placed to help you with your health needs.
Helping you to choose
The choice is always yours though. It is completely up to you if you want to share information with our reception team.
You will never be refused a GP appointment but we hope next time you contact our practice and speak with our reception team you will see the value of seeing another healthcare professional if they are able to help.
If you would like someone to explain this to you in person, a member of our practice team will be happy to help.