A NEW healthcare scheme will be launched at GP practices across Bromsgrove in a bid to offer patients a more personalised and quicker service.
Following feedback from a patient survey, the Healthcare Navigation Scheme will run from November 1 and will see a Healthcare Navigator role introduced in GP practices across the town and in neighbouring Redditch.
Staff, including administration and clerical, will be trained to provide a greater role in signposting patients when they call up their GP surgery for an appointment.
The Healthcare Navigators, who are bound by confidentiality, will ask for more information about the difficulties they have been having in a bid to provide other options which may be more beneficial than seeing the GP.
Dr Sally Hetherington, a GP who is part of the Healthcare Navigation project team, said: “We know sometimes patients find navigating health services difficult and in some cases the GP practice might not even be the right place for the query.
“Sometimes patients could be seen and treated quicker by a nurse or a pharmacist for example.
“It’s about giving patients choice, supporting and guiding them with the right information.”
With the support of funding from NHS England, GP Practice staff have received training from Birmingham City University which includes a mixture of online learning and face-to-face training sessions along with in-practice training and support.
Birmingham City University was one of the contributors to Health Education England’s Care Navigation framework published in 2016.
Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG has worked with the university to develop a training programme that covers all of the essential elements of this framework along with useful information for Healthcare Navigators to undertake this new way of working.
A number of Practice Managers and several patient representatives including members of GP Practice Patient Participation Groups have also contributed to the content and design of this scheme.
Dr Heatherington added: “Across Redditch and Bromsgrove we are working hard to make sure that when people need to see a GP, they have access to one quickly and in a way that suits them, be that in person or over the phone.”
* WHAT are your experiences of your local GP surgery? Do you get the access you need? Or are there any improvements you feel could be made to the system? Email us your views to [email protected]
