Practice digital front doors are not exclusionary, says PCN leader

Online appointment booking can increase timely access and is not exclusionary the clinical director of a Southampton PCN has said.

At Pulse PCN’s latest roundtable on digital transformation, clinical director of Southampton North PCN, Hampshire, Dr Matthew Prendergast said: ‘For some GPs, the idea of everyone going online is awful – they say it will exclude lots of people.

‘But we found that doing it online as a first option works because we’ve allowed an environment that means people find it easy. It’s not exclusionary.

‘They find it easy to go online to book. And as a result, we don’t have long waits on the phone. So, for those elderly patients who can’t book online, they ring in and they get through in two minutes.’

At the roundtable, where three clinical directors joined three DTLs from Cheshire, Southampton and London, Dr Prendergast challenged the notion that practices and PCNs cannot set this up. Adding that, ‘What you’re doing is allowing space for everybody.’

The delegates also discussed the PCN digital transformation lead (DTL) role in supporting GP practices navigate the digital market.

Luisa Garlick, digital transformation lead, Northwich PCN and PCN manager SMASH PCN, South Cheshire, said: ‘There are many companies, with so many different solutions, trying to access GPs and clinical directors…. It’s almost like there’s this digital data fatigue that could overwhelm practices.

‘The DTL role is very much there to kind of sift through and look at what will work and what might not work and put those solutions in front of the right people.’

Pulse PCN’s quarterly roundtables examine the core tasks PCNs must deliver as part of the PCN Network DES you can read the full report here.