Enhanced Access Planning: Reducing demand, increasing capacity and bringing joy back into general practice Webinar

Join Altogether Better for a short webinar to find out why doing more of the same might get you more of the same!  If you’re up for it, and want to work differently, Altogether Better can support you to as you develop your Enhanced Access Plans in a way that will reduce demand and increase capacity in your PCN.

Our offer

Learning from our joint work over the last year, this offer from Altogether Better is to provide an opportunity to turn the must do of developing enhanced access plans into something you want to do, meeting the needs of patients and bringing the joy back into work.

Our approach will support you to:

• • Develop your plans and complete the PCN Enhanced Access template.
  • Meet patient need and improve patient experience in a way that reduces demand for clinical appointments
  • Increase your PCN’s ability to deliver health and wellbeing without simply increasing paid roles
  • Address the population health inequalities agenda
  • Build a stronger, more connected relationship with your community
  • And…bring joy back into general practice at a time when pressures are high and morale is low.

Demand and capacity within the complexity of primary care

Much of the current approach to demand and capacity is shaped by the experience of acute care. In the acute world demand and capacity is straightforward. For example, how many hip replacements are needed in a year is incredibly predictable; patients have been triaged (referred by a GP or a consultant) and it is a simple question of eligibility.

In General Practice/PCNs it is a completely different issue needing different approaches. In primary care, practices are facing ‘unstructured’ problems. Someone coming for a consultation can be looking for a day off work, be having difficulty coping, in an abusive relationship, have a simple infection or a rare, complex disease.

Understanding demand

The starting point to understand demand in general practice is very different to that required in acute care. The starting point is to understand what the demand is for. To understand demand, you must step back and uncover people’s needs.  Once you have a clearer picture, you know which are best met by whom.

Working with Altogether Better, practices discover a high proportion of the demand (up to 50%) is for needs that cannot be met by a GP or a nurse. Much of the demand is for social support (particularly if a LTC or social determinant) or interventions that can be delivered by citizens themselves, citizens who can meet a plethora of social and wellbeing needs.

Where does it take place?

Patients come to the practice – and will continue to come – because they are in a powerful, trusting relationship with their practice.

Our Collaborative Practice  approach has been designed to increase practice capacity to meet some of the non-clinical needs they face by inviting volunteer Practice Health Champions to become part of the ‘extended practice team’. Champions support the practice to provide new offers, support and activities to their patients, providing solutions to the problems that medicine alone cannot fix.

Join us to find out more:

We are hosting two short webinar discussions to share our approach and hear from you:

• • Thursday 30^th June, 12.15- 1.00pm
  • Friday 1^st July, 12.30pm – 1.15pm

The webinar is free to join and places can be booked at the following link :  Register here with Eventbrite for free Enhanced Access Webinar