Do you need a bit of support with Anima?
To make life a bit easier for you we’ve created our top tips for completing our online clinical sorting questions when making a health request for new or existing conditions:
One of the most important parts of completing an online form is letting us know your availability. Before starting your form check your calendar and identify dates and times you would not be able to make an appointment such as your working hours or prior commitments.
Our clinical sorting questions usually take around 5 minutes to complete. Submit your health requests at times in your day when you have a few spare minutes, such as when you’re waiting for public transport, cooking a meal or on a lunch break.
Before you start make sure you have your NHS or Anima login details to hand or saved to your browser passwords.
Ideally, use a desktop or laptop to complete your questions. Most people find it easier to type on a computer than smartphone. It is more difficult to accidentally close or reload a website on these devices than on a smartphone.
Try not to get distracted whilst filling in the questions, if you step away from the questions for too long you may be logged out of your session.
Before you start your contact form quickly reflect on what you have been up to since your health problem started. Can you think of anything that has triggered it? Think about whether a lifestyle choice such as your diet or exercise regime has affected the problem.
Before you start your questions quickly make a list of the symptoms you have been experiencing in relation to your medical request. Tell us if you’re experiencing pain, if your senses have been affected and which parts of your body seem to be affected. Giving a full list of your symptoms helps us to identify the root cause of your health problem.
Try and measure your symptoms. Tell us if your symptoms are severe or mild. Tell us how long you have been experiencing your symptoms. Tell us if your symptoms are recurring or whether it seems to be a one-off occurrence. Tell us whether your symptoms seem to be getting better or worse.
Highlight in your answers anything you are particularly worried about. Our clinical sorting team will take this into account when processing your request. You should also tell us about any specific outcome you are hoping for as part of your request such as a GP appointment, a prescription, or a referral.
Tell us what you have done to treat your symptoms or condition so far. This could be self-care or details of ongoing treatment you have had from us or another NHS service. You don’t need to go into extreme detail about your previous NHS treatment as our clinical sorting team will also review your medical records alongside your answers.
If your request is related to a condition, you have been treated for in the past, you may be asked who you spoke to at our practice previously. If you know who then tell us, or if you don’t know and you have the NHS App, you can view your previous appointment to see which clinician saw you last. You can find more info on the NHS App here.
We wanted to thank you in advance for using our website forms. By completing our online clinical sorting questions, you are helping the GP Practice and other patients by providing us with the ability to assess your healthcare needs quickly and efficiently.
