Local MP, Maria Miller, alongside Councillor Abigail Compton-Burnett, met Dr Anna Reed, Regional Medical Director, and Stephen Webb, Director of Communications, to discuss residents access to GP Services at Camrose, Gillies and Hackwood Partnership, and the Beggarwood Surgery, and to discuss what action is being taken to return GP operations at their five Basingstoke practices back to normal levels post-pandemic, and their planned improvements to raise standards going forward.
Maria said: “As a big provider of important GP services in Basingstoke – covering the Camrose, Gillies, and Hackwood Partnership, and the Beggarwood Surgery, with around 50,000 patients, and a further 13,000 at the Shakespeare Road Surgery – Operose have a key role in delivering quality GP services to Basingstoke residents. I was therefore pleased to meet with Anna and Stephen in order to emphasise the importance residents place on their core services, and to discuss how the health needs of the Basingstoke community can be better met in future.
“I know that Basingstoke residents are concerned about access to GP services, particularly waiting times for appointments, and standards of communication between practices and their patients, both of which have been adversely impacted by the pandemic. That is why I was pleased to hear Operose are currently enacting a number of measures to drive up access to services at their four sites.
“I understand that as of the past month, Operose are now focussing triage of patient calls only on urgent on the day appointment. Phone lines have been centralised across all four sites, to help mitigate periods of high demand at one specific surgery. Face-to-face appointments are back to around 60-70% of total appointments, with phone appointments still available on request to increase options and flexibility for patients. Furthermore, in recent weeks 3 new permanent reception staff have recently been recruited, along with 3 GPs in the last 4 months, helping to ease the workload on existing staff. All of which should help to improve waiting times.
“Of particular interest, Operose will also shortly be rolling out a new digital operating system, ‘Dr IQ’, which will streamline the handling of enquiries, appointment booking, and prescriptions. This is being trialled in coordination with Patient Participation Groups, to ensure close collaboration between Operose and their service users.
All these steps are encouraging, but I will of course continue to monitor services closely, and will be following up with Operose later this year to review the impact of the new measures.”