We are unaware of any private GPs who are using digital triage solutions when booking appointments for private patients. Triaging patients is a great way to get information about the patient quickly, particularly if you don’t have a copy of the patient’s electronic health record. However, in practice many patients don’t like to fill in triage forms and can often put them off booking an appointment.
Triaging patients is a way to gather information about why the patient is making an appointment ahead of booking. It is designed to help the practice and the GP know more about the patient and their health concerns before their appointment.
Since COVID-19, NHS GP practices have increased their digital triage with the implementation of a ‘total triage’ model. Under this model, every patient contacting an NHS GP clinic is triaged before being able to make an appointment.
This involves using an online system to understand why the patient wants an appointment with a GP. From this information a decision is made on the most appropriate mode of care delivery, healthcare professional and level of urgency.
Most private GPs decide against triaging patients and use the absence of a triage as a selling point for their clinic.
We know that patients don’t like filling in a triage questionnaire and want to make an appointment at the time of their choosing where they can discuss their health directly with a GP.
As consultations with a private GP tend to be much longer than with the NHS, there should be sufficient time within the consultation to gather all the information you need.
There also tends to be a much shorter wait time for a consultation with a private GP, meaning the clinic doesn’t need to prioritise patients based on urgency.
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