Digital access update

We are writing to provide an update following our recent digital access review. Firstly, we would like to thank the huge number of patients who took the time to respond to our survey to provide such valuable feedback on your experience of contacting your GP practice via our current digital platform, Anima.

We have heard loud and clear that two thirds of patients do not find the current process of raising medical requests using Anima helpful and we recognise the need for prompt resolution to concerns raised.

From Monday 28 October 2024, we will enable 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 a number of drop-down boxes and complete multiple screening questions which you have told us can be challenging and take a lot of your time to complete.

You will be able to access this on the Anima page by clicking the ‘I have a question for my doctor’ box as shown below.

We hope you find this helpful. We do have a number of patients who find digital access a useful additional and convenient way to contact their practice.

We will also be making a change to how our team answer your calls, and how our practice reception staff respond to your phone calls and attendances at our reception desks. These colleagues will also use the ‘simple query’ function to capture your request to reduce the amount of time each call/interaction takes. This means we can help more patients via telephone and face-to-face.

We appreciate these are short-term changes which respond to some of the feedback received. The larger scale digital access platform re-procurement process we are undertaking is still going ahead which will involve patients during pilot and testing stages.

Please be assured that you can access care via telephone or by speaking to a member of our reception team. Digital access must be a complementary, straightforward alternative that our patients choose to use voluntarily.

Thank you once again for your feedback, patience and support whilst we deliver a number of changes across our GP practices to improve your experience as a valued patient.

Yours sincerely