Our GPs have been in discussion for some time about ways to not only improve the AccuRx Triage system, but also to ensure it works efficiently and safely.
Earlier in 2023, we used to close the AccuRx Triage form at 2pm, so that the triaging GPs still have time to review all the requests that had come in that day and allocate an appointment to patients that needed to be seen that day. While the system was working well for the most part, the volume of requests that the practice was receiving on a daily basis, and particularly on a Monday, started to increase dramatically.
This was putting extraordinary pressure on our GPs. With this in mind, we decided, from Monday 16th October 2023, to change the closing time of the AccuRx form from 2pm to 12pm. As before, if a patient feels they need to be urgently seen by a GP after 12pm, they can still speak to reception and the duty doctor can triage their need and arrange to see them the same day if appropriate. The good news is, that due to the cut-off now being 12pm, we can guarantee that any AccuRx request that is submitted will be dealt with and responded to on the same day it is submitted. So, if you submit an AccuRx request at 11:30am, you will have a response by the end of that day.
Some patients have asked, “why can’t we simply submit requests after 12pm, knowing that they won’t be looked at until the next day?” While this sounds like a simple solution, our GPs would not be happy with leaving medical requests overnight without someone having looked at them to ensure nothing is urgent and should be dealt with that day, as this is a safety issue in itself.
We understand that there will be some patients who will find this update frustrating, but we hope you can all appreciate that our first priority is the safety of our patients, and our current situation is not sustainable, so we need to look at ways to manage the demand into the practice that doesn’t put clinical safety at risk.
