Improving access to GP services across North West London

Improving access to GP services across North West London

Have you visited your GP recently? What do you think about the way you book your appointments and the way that they are delivered? Share your views about your experiences and preferences when using GP services ­­­­­­- it only takes a few minutes to complete the survey!

Proposed changes to GP access

In February, North West London Integrated Care System (ICS) introduced its ambitious plan to address patients’ concerns about the difficulty of accessing same day primary care appointments. 

The plans involved the introduction of new ‘same day hubs’, which patients could access if they needed an urgent appointment. This central hub would have consisted of senior GPs, community pharmacists and other medical professionals from local primary care networks (PCNs). 

A non-clinical care coordinator would have been responsible for deciding on the best service to meet the patients’ needs. This may be a GP consultation for people with a history of complicated long-term conditions or an appointment with a community pharmacist for individuals with non-urgent requests.

Concerns raised by GPs and the public 

The proposal was, however, met with concerns raised by GPs and residents. Some of the issues highlighted to us included:

• Patients may need to travel far if same day GP appointments at their local practice were unavailable
• Care coordinators who do not have prior knowledge of patients’ medical histories would determine who gets seen by a GP
• The new system could disrupt the continuity of care in many practices
• The new system would raise the workload on GPs because they would be focusing on more complex long-term conditions

Following these comments, the ICS have decided that more time is needed before implementing any new plans. They will continue to work with PCNs to understand how GP access can be improved for patients, and have committed to ensuring there is a high level of patient engagement ahead of any changes

We want to hear from you!

Based on these developments, we want to hear your views about your experiences of accessing primary care. It only takes a few minutes to share your experience by filling in our survey and help improve primary care service access in North West London. We will share the views with the ICS and wider system partners to help inform the future of primary care.