Launching December 2023 - A better and faster way to request an appointment or ask us a question

Exciting news! We are introducing a new appointment system called ‘Patient Triage’ which will improve how Capelfield delivers healthcare services to our patients.

At Capelfield, we are dedicated to providing the highest standards of care and the best possible patient experience at the surgery. However, like many other surgeries across the country there has been an increasing demand for appointments and unfortunately, like other surgeries, there have also been increasing challenges on our capacity to meet this demand.   We understand how frustrating it can be for patients to be kept on hold on the phone or to feel like they have to queue at 8am to get an appointment.

Everyone’s healthcare is important to us.  However, we also realised that there needed to be a better and fairer way to ensure that when patients need our help the most, they do not struggle to get an appointment which the traditional system does not support as well as we would like.

‘Patient Triage’ or ‘triaging’ involves everyone completing a short online consultation form. Our GPs will then carefully review all the requests during opening hours to decide who should be seen or responded to first based on the urgency or level of their clinical need, and who is best placed in the team to provide that care.  We will also take a similar approach to requests and queries that are not necessarily about appointments such as sick notes and repeat prescription.

We of course, acknowledge that not everyone wants to or is able to complete these forms online. So please be assured you are always welcome to still phone or visit the surgery when one of our lovely Reception Team will complete the form on your behalf.

We do understand that change can be difficult, but we are committed to delivering a robust service – ‘Patient Triage’ has been operating very successfully in other surgeries and NHS England has also reported that it has resulted in higher patient satisfaction rates. We believe that will be the case at Capelfield too and that patients will soon start to experience the benefits, especially less time waiting on the phone! However, do kindly bear with us while we launch ‘Patient Triage’ at Capelfield!

For more information, please visit our FAQ in the News section on our website: 

New ‘Patient Triage’ system – FAQ - Capelfield Surgery

 

Published on 8 December 2023