Local GPs are doing a huge amount of work to care and treat our community. And earlier this year I ran a survey as I wanted to hear your experiences of how this is translating to you and your family in terms of appointments. Thank you to everyone who took part and share your experiences.
Earlier this month I held a roundtable with local GP’s and practice managers, to discuss the results of survey – and there was good news! Local GPs across Sevenoaks and Swanley are providing more appointments than prior to 2019, which is brilliant and a huge thank you to the doctors, nurses, GP practice managers and their teams for all their hard work in achieving in.
What was clear from the survey is that sadly some patients at specific surgeries are still having difficulty booking appointments and do not always fully understand the processes that surgeries now employ in order to triage healthcare.
I asked about this at the meeting and GPs were clear that triaging is important as it seeks to ensures patients are seen with the appropriate level of urgency and by the appropriate healthcare provider. Nurse Practitioners and the new Pharmacy First Service means patients with common ailments can be treated quicker, which free’s up GPs time for the more complicated cases.
It is vital that services in this area are as good as they can be, and by working together we can achieve this.
