The way you book a GP appointment outside normal working hours will be changing from 1st October 2022. GP access, where and when you need it, is important to us all, so find out what the changes mean. From October 2022, the way that GP services in Tilbury Chadwell PCN are provided on evenings, weekends and bank holidays (also known as enhanced access) is changing.
At the moment, there are two forms of ‘enhanced access’ provision:
Extended Access Hubs (weekday evenings 18:30-20:00pm, and weekends and bank holidays 08:00-20:00). Extended Hours access: Local GP practices provide ‘extended hours’ to expand core opening hours and provide additional early morning/evening sessions. From 1 October 2022, national funding for these two forms of access will be combined and given to Primary Care Networks (PCNs) including your local Network for Tilbury Chadwell Practices.
This is a change that affects GPs not just in Tilbury and Chadwell but across the country. As a PCN we are sharing our plans with patients and using the feedback to shape our offer, ensuring that we are responsive to known patient views, and reflect the patient need across the Network which includes registered patients in Tilbury, Chadwell, East Tilbury and Corringham. Please drop into one of our Engagement Events – ‘Have your Say’ and complete the Patient preference survey.
So, what does this mean:
Capacity: the overall number of hours that can be accessed locally will be greater.
Hub locations: the locations for face-to-face appointments need to be convenient for patients. We have 4 designated Hub Locations – Commonwealth Health Centre, Chadwell Medical Centre, East Tilbury Medical Centre and Corringham Health Centre.
Type of appointment: a mixture of face-to-face and remote (telephone, video, online) appointments will be available together with the ability to pre-book appointments.
Staff you’ll see: appointments will be available across a wide GP Led Multi-Disciplinary team including Nurses, Pharmacist in addition to other roles.
What will be different:
Hours of Access: Evening Appointments 18:30-20:00 weekdays and Saturday Appointments 09:00-17:00 More focus on appointments that can be booked in advance: the specification has more focus on making sure pre-bookable appointments are available for patients – this can include ‘planned care’ appointments, i.e. regular monitoring of a patient’s long-term condition, immunisations, or screenings.
IT: Practices and the PCN will have the ability to book into/cancel appointments, make referrals/request tests, view/update patients’ records.
How you can give us your views:
We are looking for your views on the new enhanced service and the formal patient engagement is currently running with a planned end on 21 September 2022. Click the links below to view a more detailed document regarding the Patient Engagement and to download the Survey
Document for Patient Engagement – Tilbury Chadwell PCN Enhanced Access Service
Enhanced Access Patient Survey – Tilbury Chadwell PCN
Once completed, the survey can be handed in to reception at your registered GP Practice.
Should you need support in filling in your survey or would like information in another format please ask at your registered GP practice.