HEALTH & WELLBEING BOARD

Agenda Item 20(b) Brighton and Hove City Council

1.1       To consider any Member Questions received. The date the following questions have been received from Councillor Bagaeen:

1. Under pandemic guidance, GP surgeries had been advised to offer telephone triage first, and then face-to-face appointments if deemed ‘clinically necessary’. What constitutes ‘necessary’ remains open to interpretation. While many GPs have been willing to offer patients either telephone or in--person appointments, depending on what they prefer, others appear to have moved almost entirely to virtual ones. That’s certainly the case of my GP. The advice from the NHS is for GP practices now is to reverse the triage model and see patients face to face without an a screening call. What advice or guidance has the CCG given to GP practices in the city?

2. It’s been argued that the shift to telephone appointments is actually good for the NHS. It’s more efficient. Yet the data doesn’t support this. Even with the move to phone consultations, it appears that the proportion of same-day appointments taking place has barely changed. Can colleagues share the data for same-day appointments (telephone and face to face) for individual GP practices across the city?