Smart Triage – week one update

As you will no doubt be aware, we are transitioning to a new way to book appointments with GP at Hand.

Smart Triage allows us to offer you the most appropriate clinician and timeframe for your clinical need. It should mean that you will be able to get urgent appointments when you need one, whilst also maintaining the ability to book ahead for more routine needs. The system also has a section for “Questions and admin”, which you can use to get help for things like Travel and Fit Notes, as well as being able to send us a message. We aim to reply to all queries within one working day, so you won’t have to wait.

In order to minimise disruption, we are phasing in the new system over three weeks. Last week we introduced the patient-facing elements of the new system, and this week we are switching our clinicians over. Finally, next week, we will switch our in-person clinics across. From 16th December, therefore, we should have moved everything away from the eMed app, and onto the Smart Triage and NHS app system.

Thank you so much to all those who have provided their helpful feedback and suggestions, both before the roll-out and over the past week. We will be sending out a survey in the New Year to gather more feedback, and give you the chance to let us know how the system is working for you.

The sole reason for doing this is to make GP at Hand more accessible and easier to use. As we switch to more NHS technology, you will find we are integrated much better into the NHS infrastructure and online services. There are more improvements in this to come over the next few months. Thank you for your support and patience as we work to further improve our service.