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  • Achieved 9% Growth in NHS App Uptake in 8 Months

    Achieved 9% Growth in NHS App Uptake in 8 Months

    Our PCN got into 2024 at 55% NHS App uptake.

    A fairly good amount, but our ICB wanted 70% by December 2024.

    If we increased monthly registration from 140 to 220, we could only reach 70% by December 2025 (one year later).

    The Challenge Was That:

    Covid-19 was the primary reason many people downloaded the NHS App.

    I was told, “We do not tell people which app to use; they just figure it out.”

    GPs were only responsible for issuing online access. This means giving people access to their medical records.

    But not how they access this record.

    The GP staff issues a linkage key, and the patient decides whether to use it on Evergreenlive, Patient Access, or tens of other patient-facing service providers

    However, the risk I found with this is when you see the GP Patient Survey, only the NHS App and GP website access option were taken into account

    They are one of the two areas in which patients of GP surgeries have expressed dissatisfaction the most.

    So:

    1. I worked with Marta Fischer, the ICB Digital Access Lead, to train our GP admin staff on how to support patients getting on the NHS App
    2. Organised a drop-in session supported by our GP practice managers and colleagues
    3. Established a monthly Digital Café, now Digital Clinic at both practices to support people to download and use the NHS App

    We have now increased our NHS App uptake to a pre-covid record high of 400 monthly registrations

    • Expected to reach 70% 6 months earlier than projected
    • 64% uptake in December 2024
    • Have knowledgeable GP staff supporting and triaging patients with NHS App issues
    • Issued proxy access to 5 of 6 eligible care homes in Wantage

    Being able to advise patients to use the NHS App also means we can support them or point them in the right direction when they have issues

    When you have an app run by the National Health Service, with an active development team and public funding

    You cannot go too wrong telling your patient to use the app.

    When they call and say they cannot see their medical records, you know it is the surgery’s problem, not the NHS App team. 

    Doing so will cut the back-and-forth, increase patient satisfaction, and leave the GP staff feeling empowered to have been of help.

    Common NHS app requests and how to handle them

    If you are a GP staff, you can keep on top of NHS App issues by joining the NHS App ambassador program here 

    What value does the NHS app present to GP surgeries?

    With most GPs moving from traditional appointments to a triage system,

    the cost of messaging patients has increased

    With some of our practices, using around 30,000 fragments (1 fragment is 160 characters or like 1 SMS page) messages per month

    BOB ICB withdrew SMS funding for self-booking messages. 

    With the NHS App being a free service, GPs can save the cost of 2.25p per sms sent

    and include all required consultation information without feeling they are using too many fragments.

    So, if a practice increases its NHS app uptake, it could benefit from:

    • low cost of messaging
    • increase patient safety – they know only to expect messages from the GP on the NHS App
    • increasing patient satisfaction and reduce GP staff workload

    Patients can now manage service for others, view their medical records, and request prescriptions without the 8 am rush

    GP staff, on the other hand, can focus on increasing service quality instead of getting overwhelmed by the busyness of the GP surgery

    Such as adopting good coding practices and ensuring no significant event occurs or is well managed during a patient visit at the surgery.

    There are other safeguarding issues, like making sure only the right people are given proxy access

    Or protecting those who are vulnerable or ensuring that those over 11 have a choice to manage or give access to their record

  • Delivered Proxy Access for 5 Care Homes in Wantage

    Delivered Proxy Access for 5 Care Homes in Wantage

    Every week, a GP from the surgery gets an appointment to visit a resident of a care home who has a medical problem.

    Any observation from such a visit is recorded in the resident’s patient profile in the GP system.

    The enhanced health in Care Home (EHCH) framework expects healthcare providers and Care Home staff to communicate better to improve resident care.

    To support better communication, some GP surgeries have an assigned admin staff member who enters each patient note and emails each consultation to the Care Homes.

    If the GP saw seven patients, an admin staff would email these seven consultations to the care homes.

    The problem with this method is that:

    This model can quickly increase admin staff’s workload and become a barrier for many GPs to meet the EHCH expectation.

    It is also a duplicated effort!

    Couple with the risk of missing out on some consultations due to manual human error.

    With proxy access

    The care home staff sees the consultation in the resident’s medical note when the GP enters it.

    what is proxy access?

    Anyone responsible for their care, like Care Home staff who needs to order cream for a resident,

    can see what cream they are on and quickly make such a request without phoning the GP.

    Resulting in time-saving for the carer and improved care for the resident without adding workload for the GP.

    Benefits of proxy access

    This Firmley ICB document summarises the benefits of proxy access for repeat prescriptions well. 

    firmley icb description of the benefit of proxy access

    But you can do more with proxy access

    View consultations:

    Fulfilling the EHCH is easier if GP practices give care homes access to view consultations.

    This also gives them access to view allergies and medication, which can be limited to your desired period.

    With this access, Care Home staff can view PRNs (medications that are used as needed, like the cream example used earlier)

    Manage Appointments

    It depends on what suits your current appointment model.

    Providing pre-bookable appointment slots to only care home staff can be a way to manage your care home appointments.

    Instead of emailing GPs with a list of residents due for a visit, the Care Home staff can book the appointment directly from the patient record in Patient Access

    This will give both GP practice and Care Homes an audit trail of residents seen by the appointments.

    It will also save GP time by having a different and often quicker pathway for Care Homes to access GP practice.

    Save one working day with this proxy access hack

    3 in 10 care home staff switch jobs every year

    That means GP staff will dedicate one working day in a year to issue proxy access to an average size care home

    But you should only spend such time when setting it up the first time.

    To save this time, you should limit the number of care home staff who can use proxy access. 

    The max we have done so far is six staff per care home. 

    Once you have established this, you only need to replace any leaver with the new staff

    To do this, edit the online proxy user details and replace them with the current staff details. 

    Reset the user account details and guide the care home staff to set it up on patientaccess.com

    This will take about 5 minutes of GP staff time as opposed to a full working day.