What we are doing at JSP to make as many GP appointments available to you as possible

Dear patients of The Jubilee Street Practice,
We would love to update you on what we are doing at JSP to make as many GP appointments available to you as possible.
At JSP, we offer a wide range of face-to-face, telephone and video consultations. Over the years, and prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have found that many patient queries and consultations can be managed safely, quickly and effectively over the phone or a video consultation, meaning more flexibility for our patients and greater capacity for GP appointments, as our doctors will be able to treat more patients in a day. Of course, there are many situations in which a telephone appointment would not be appropriate – for example, if you required a physical examination. In this case, the doctor speaking with you over the phone will offer you a face-to-face appointment as soon as possible, often on the same day.
Our latest figures from Edenbridge show that in the month of October 2022, we held 4,886 GP consultations for our patients. This is in addition to the thousands of monthly appointments delivered by our practice nurses, specialist nurses, healthcare assistants, physician associate, practice pharmacist, mental health practitioner and midwives, many of which are conducted face-to-face.

Here is the breakdown of the 4,886 GP consultations last month:
• Telephone consultations: 3,479
• GP surgery (face-to-face): 1,149
• Remote consultation: 154
• Home visits: 57
• Discussion with a colleague: 10
• Video consultation: 9
• Home visit note: 8

In 2016, we were rated “Outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), after implementing our “tele triage” model, which sees all patient calls, eConsults, walk-ins and email requests personally triaged by a GP, who will then book the patient the quickest and most appropriate appointment type to ensure we treat as many patients as possible each week and that patients are able to speak to the right person.
As a practice, we are constantly evaluating our systems and seeking ways to improve patient care. Our current quality improvement projects include looking at ways in which we can increase our capacity of telephone answering with the number of administrative staff we have, and improving our patient registration system.
All feedback we receive from our patients, be this written or verbal, positive or negative, is carefully considered by all members of the team. As always, we would encourage as many of our patients as possible to connect with our Patient Participation Group (click here for more details on our patient participation group), where you will be the first to hear about any proposed changes to the way we work and given an opportunity to give your opinion and feedback.
Finally, we would like to thank our patients for supporting us, especially over the past couple of years. Your kind words of encouragement have been truly humbling, and serve as a reminder of why we do what we do every day.
We will be looking to update you more frequently on our appointment offerings, so please watch this space!