You may have noticed that we ask for a brief outline of your problem when you call the practice. This is because we have trained our administration staff to be Care Navigators, to book you with the correct clinician. Our care navigators will work with you to fully understand what your needs are and ensure that we help you with your problem efficiently and conveniently. Their goal is to ensure that you get the right care at the right time in the right place with the right outcome.
Through training, our team can now offer more choice on who to see in the practice; clinics within our primary care network or even services within the local area, to help you get to the right health professional fast. Our care navigators never offer clinical advice; this is about offering you the choice to see other more appropriate health professionals, often quicker and without the need to see the GP each time.
For example, we often get calls that can be dealt with by an optician, the pharmacist, or the nurse, that you may not be aware of if you haven’t visited the practice in a while.
By working this way, it helps us to free up time for GPs to care for our patients with complex or serious health conditions and it means that you will find it easier to get a GP appointment when you need one. More importantly though, it means you are seen by the most appropriate health professional that is best placed to deal with your problem each time you visit us. The choice is up to you.