Wigan GPs transforming the way they see patients to limit the spread of Covid-19

GPs in Wigan have had to transform the way they work in just a few short weeks to try to limit the spread of coronavirus..
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The vast majority of appointments with surgeries in the borough have been switched from face-to-face meetings to being held online, via video or over the telephone.

Wigan Borough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) estimates that currently just seven per cent of appointments involve a patient visiting a surgery, with the other 93 per cent done remotely.

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And analysis by the BBC Shared Data Unit reveals that phone and video made up just 9.9 per cent of GP appointments between February 2019 and February 2020.

GPs have had to transform the way they workGPs have had to transform the way they work
GPs have had to transform the way they work

A massive 88.7 per cent of Wigan doctors’ appointments were face to face in the 12-month period before the coronavirus crisis began to ramp up.

Although the CCG does not have full official data on the method for all its appointments, working from the statistics it suggests Wigan’s current ratio of face-to-face to remote meetings with doctors is broadly similar to that across the country.

The clinical commissioning group said it had already begun trialling video appointments in some practices before the outbreak, and more appointments were being done over the phone.

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The CCG has suggested this has led to some people actually getting medical help quicker than going down the more traditional route.

Tim DaltonTim Dalton
Tim Dalton

Local health chiefs said that while the Covid-19 outbreak is still going on it is vital patients do not turn up unannounced at their GP, although they also stressed anyone who needed to see a doctor face-to-face would be able to do so.

Tim Dalton, Wigan Borough CCG chair, said: “Local GP practices have done a fantastic job of responding to coronavirus and have adopted new ways of working very quickly.

Patients can and should still have conversations with their GP about their health and any conditions or illnesses, but most of these conversations will now take place over the phone, email or through video consultations.

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“This is a new way of working for many of our practices and our patients, but it is the right way to deliver services in these circumstances, and does mean that many patients will get contact with their GP faster than they would normally!

“I would like to reassure all patients that when it is clinically required, patients can see a GP face-to-face.

“GPs also continue to do home visits to the most vulnerable people who need them.

“However, during this time, it is really important that all patients ring their practice and don’t just turn up at their GP practice for any reason unless their practice is expecting them and has confirmed that they don’t have symptoms.

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“I would like to thank all patients for their support during these challenging times.”

The CCG said it is learning from its ongoing experiences of alternatives to face-to-face appointments to quickly roll online, phone and video working out across the borough.

The BBC Shared Data Unit stats show that between February 2019 and February 2020 Wigan Borough CCG carried out almost 1.5m appointments, with 1,270,567 of them face-to-face.

There were 20,458 home visits, 108,973 telephone calls, 32,312 video conference or online appointments and 64,080 of unknown type.

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There could be a number of reasons for this, one of them being that some surgeries across the country use an IT system called VisionGP which leaves NHS England unable to supply appointment mode data.

The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) also praised the profession’s response to coronavirus and suggested that in future far more appointments could be carried out without patients actually setting foot in a GP surgery.

RCGP chairman Professor Martin Marshall said that even in cases such as skin rashes phone calls had successfully diagnosed problems where patients were able to email in pictures of the affected

areas.

Age UK, however, urged doctors not to drop home visits and to seek out vulnerable patients “proactively”.

The charity also raised concerns that older residents without smartphones or computers could be excluded from getting medical help during the current crisis.