Dear Patient
I am writing to update you on our ongoing review of digital access. Firstly, I would like to thank the almost 1000 patients who took the time to respond to our survey. You provided valuable feedback on your experience of contacting your GP practice via our current digital platform, Anima. This information added to the feedback some of you have given to us over the past few months/weeks.
As expected, we received both positive and negative feedback. Many people responding to the survey feel digital access is a useful and convenient way to contact the practice. In response to some of the negative comments, we have made a significant change to the way you can use Anima. It’s subtle, so I thought it appropriate to communicate this change directly to patients.
I understand that some patients do not find the current process of raising medical requests using Anima easy. The feedback highlighted that some patients find the medical request form to be long-winded and inflexible. The team now recognise the need to provide an alternative way for patients to raise a medical request digitally.
Earlier this week we enabled a ‘simple query’ box on Anima. This will allow patients to send us their request via a free text (box) option and will remove the need to navigate several drop-down boxes and complete multiple screening questions.
Patients can now access this on the Anima page by clicking the ‘I have a question for my doctor’ box as shown below. Access to the usual form via the ‘Medical request’ box is still available. We hope you find this change to be useful. Please see below.
In addition to the above, we recently introduced a callback function to our phone lines. If you call us and wait longer than two minutes in the queue, you will now be offered the opportunity to receive a callback from a member of our team. You will retain your original place in the queue. This is an optional service, and you can remain on hold if you choose to.
These are short-term changes which respond to some of the feedback received. Northumbria Primary Care is undertaking a re-procurement process with the intention of providing the best possible digital access solution. The process will involve patients during the pilot and testing stages and our Patient Participation Group is keen to be involved too.
Please be assured that you can still access care via telephone or by speaking to a member of our reception team. These requests will still be logged via Anima, so the staff member you speak to will need to ask for the same information as the Anima form. This is to ensure consistency across pathways to care.
Thank you once again for your feedback, patience and support.
Yours sincerely
Dr Matt Thomas BMedSci(Hons) MB BS MRCGP DTher DOccMed
Executive GP
NPC Ponteland
