Dear Patient
Telephone Triage (or Telephone Consulting) is a method for the GPs to evaluate patients’ symptoms over the telephone. Telephone Triage has become more important in contemporary general practice due to a number of factors:
- Access – demand for appointments commonly outstrips supply so daytime telephone triage has become the norm for juggling appointment systems, waiting times and prioritizing emergencies.
- Consumer demand – with the advent of mobile communication and a faster 24/7 society, many patients expect that they can obtain medical advice ‘on the go’.
- Clinical targets – the telephone has become a vital administrative tool enabling practices to achieve targets. For example, telephones are widely used to prompt attendance at clinics and to monitor a chronic disease patient’s progress without the need for patients to come in to the surgery.
For these reasons East Finchley Medical Practice have introduced a GP Telephone Triage Service to deliver some of the health care and this for over a year now, and we would like you to complete the following questionnaire to help us understand how the Service can be improved, if at all.
Please answer ALL the questions and submit by clicking on the ‘SEND’ button at the bottom of the page.
Q1. How satisfied are you with our GP Telephone Triage Service?
Q2. When you last called the surgery to make an appointment, were you offered the choice of a telephone consultation with a GP who would decide on the appropriate outcome of your medical complaint?
Q3. Did you have to wait long before a doctor telephoned you?
Q4. How do you rate the waiting time?
Q5. When you spoke to the doctor on the telephone, did the doctor listen to you carefully and ask for a detailed history of your problem?
Q6. Were you offered opportunities to ask questions?
Q7. Did you understand the instructions given to you by the doctor?
Q8. Were you free to ask questions about anything that was not entirely clear?
Q9. Were you offered sufficient information to allow you to manage your problem yourself?
Here are a number of statements about our GP Telephone Triage Service. Please tick any that you agree with:
Q10. I like the GP Telephone Triage Service because:
Q11. I dislike the GP Telephone Triage Service because:
Q12. Is there any way we could improve our Telephone Triage System?:
Please comment:
Many thanks for taking the time to complete our Survey,
Kind regards
East Finchley Medical Practice