Midlands GP surgery reduces ‘8am rush’ through online triage

A GP practice in the West Midlands has reduced the ‘8am rush’ for appointments by using an online patient triage solution. 

The Sutton Coldfield Group Practice implemented the Rapid Health Smart Triage system for its 54,000 patients in December 2023, with the aim of addressing high call volumes at peak hours.

It uses an online assessment which is intended to direct patients to the appropriate care without needing staff input, helping to reduce delays for patients.

Data collected during a five month period between December 2023 and May 2024, show that more than 20,000 patient medical requests were processed via the system and 82% of appointments were scheduled immediately after patients completed an online assessment.

Also, call volumes at 8am on Mondays decreased more than 50%, from an average of more than 200 calls in December 2023 to an average of 80 in May 2024.

Deb Sutton, chief operating officer at Sutton Coldfield Group Practice, said: “Our telephone response times are much improved and the 8am reception queue has diminished.

“While we still have progress to make, Rapid Health is helping us transform our services to patients”.

Carmelo Insalaco, chief executive and cofounder of Rapid Health said: “When you create a system that benefits both patients and practice staff, change can happen very quickly, as we’ve seen with Sutton Coldfield.

“Using a system that gives patients the autonomy to book clinically appropriate appointments not only improves patient satisfaction, but also helps to positively influence patient demand and behaviours, eventually eliminating the 8am rush”.

Sutton Coldfield Group Practice has renewed its partnership with Rapid Health, with plans to integrate the system with additional care services, such as pharmacy.

In April 2024, NHS England announced that upgraded phone technology had been rolled out across the country, with the aim of enabling more patients to get through to GP surgeries to book appointments.

However in June 2024 NHSE confirmed that it had cancelled the £300 million digital pathways framework which was planned to drive a rapid move to a modern general practice model.

The framework had been aimed at connecting ICBs with approved suppliers for digital GP tools for messaging, consultations and care navigation.

Modern general practice is an approach set out in the ‘Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care’, published in May 2023, which aims to use better digital telephony, digital online contact tools and improved workflows to improve patient access to GPs.

Meanwhile, Healthtech-1, a startup which automates administration tasks in primary care, announced in July 2024 that it has raised £2.7 million in seed funding.

Healthtech-1’s solution conducts identity checks against NHS records, writes data into the system and identifies areas that the practice might need to pay attention to, such as safeguarding.

The firm is working on building its second product, which will automate the lab reports which GP practices receive.