Our Partnership is made up of organisations working closely together to plan services and address the challenges facing health and care services across the area.
In this section you will find links to useful information and publications about our partnership.
We are committed to meaningful conversations with people, on the right issues at the right time. We believe this is an important part of the way we work.
Engagement gives people an opportunity to have their say on services. By gathering people's views, it helps us understand what matters to people.
In this section you will find all Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to our Partnership. You can also ask a question of your own.
There have been changes to GP appointments because of coronavirus (COVID-19).
GP appointments are likely to be by phone or video call.
If you need to contact a GP, do not go to the surgery in person. Instead visit your GP surgery website, use an online service or call the surgery.
Important Note Only visit a GP surgery if you have been told to.
About GP Online Consultation
As part of its Digital Transformation Strategy, NHS England embarked on a series of schemes, using technology to empower people to take control of their health and care through secure online access to clinicians, personalised health information, digital tools and advice that help patients to better manage their conditions. One of such initiatives, the GP Online Consultation, was launched in 2017 whose main objective is to empower patients and make it easier for clinicians to deliver high quality care and enabling patients to seamlessly navigate the service.
The online consultations are a way for patients to contact their GP practice without having to queue on the phone or take time out of their busy lifestyles to come into the practice. With a few clicks using a smartphone, tablet or computer, people can contact their GP practices about a new problem or an ongoing issue. They can ask questions or tell their GP about their symptoms. The practice will ensure their query is dealt with by the right person in the team, helping ensure everyone is served as quickly and appropriately as possible.
The GP Online Consultation is fully funded by NHS England as part of the General Practice Forward View. Through the GP Online Consultation Systems Fund the project was launched to support practices to explore and successfully embed models of online consultations as part of providing ‘Right Care, at the Right Time and in the Right Place’ which benefits both patients and staff.
As published in January 2019, the GP Online Consultation becomes a contractual requirement for GP practices from April 2020 as stipulated in the Five-Year Framework for GP Contract reform which all sit within the NHS Long Term Plan. It is anticipated that by April 2020, the following will be achieved;
By April 2021 at the latest, all practices will be offering video consultations.
Video consultations
Most GP surgeries can offer a video consultation. This is very similar to a face-to-face appointment.
This is where you speak to a doctor using the video camera in your smartphone, tablet or computer.
If you need to have a video call, you will get a text or email from your GP surgery with a date and time.
Find out more about how to have a video call.
The GP Online Consultation Project for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership covers the following areas with their preffered online consultation suppliers;
CCG Name Company Name Solution Name
Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven CCG eConsult Health Ltd eConsult
Bradford City CCG eConsult Health Ltd eConsult
Bradford District CCG eConsult Health Ltd eConsult
Calderdale CCG Engage Health Systems Ltd Engage Consult
Greater Huddersfield CCG eConsult Health Ltd eConsult Engage Health Systems Ltd Engage Consult
Harrogate and Rural Districts CCG eConsult Health Ltd eConsult
Leeds CCG eConsult Health Ltd eConsult Aire Logic Limited Forms4Health Enhanced Primary Healthcare Ltd e-Reception
North Kirklees CCG Engage Health Systems Ltd Engage Consult
Wakefield CCG Engage Health Systems Ltd Engage Consult GP Access Ltd AskmyGP
Forms4health is an intuitive, easily integrated, electronic smart forms platform, designed to put an organisation in control of their healthcare IT.
Forms4health will be able to replicate any existing processes in your organisation, whether currently conducted on paper or digitally, but will also bring additional benefits to streamline your workflows and allow more efficient, cost-effective and intelligent working.
How it Works for the Surgery
It works like a publishing tool, with a visual form builder and the ability to export resources immediately, creating forms using forms4health and is incredibly quick and easy.
By using the building platform to assemble your form, you can start from scratch, or use existing sections (building blocks) from previously created forms to save time and improve consistency across your organisation. You can utilise features such as conditional questions and branching logic to make sure the forms only display relevant questions to the user, making the form as easy to complete as it is to create.
How it Works for the Patient
Patient goes to their GP Surgery website, clicks on my health and then eConsultations to access the form. The form provides validation and a dynamic / hierarchical set of questions based on previous answers to make it as simple as possible to complete the form. The form then gets sent onto the surgery, where a member of staff will look at your completed form and action as appropriate.
Benefits
Video
To find out more please visit the supplier’s website;
https://airelogic.com/products-and-services/product-development-and-support/forms4health/
https://forms4health.com/forms4health/features/
eConsult is one of the most widely used online consultation platform in primary care, built by NHS GPs, designed to enhance patient access, improve practice efficiencies and relieve pressure by signposting patients to the right service for their care.
How it Works
Patients choosing to eConsult with their GP simply fill out an online form
The completed patient information is emailed to the practice
Set Up
Before you begin, consider how eConsult will sit within your workflow, and what you are trying to achieve or improve. Every practice is different, so eConsult has been designed to integrate with your practice’s ways of working. In order to benefit most you should be replacing something with eConsult rather than simply adding it as another channel.
eConsult bolts onto your existing practice website
Prepare your staff and patients
Case Studies https://econsult.net/case-studies/
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To find out more please visit the supplier's website;
https://econsult.net/
Engage Consult is a responsive Web Application accessed from the practice homepage that allows the patient to:
ENGAGE CONSULT SUPPORTS THE PATIENT- PRACTICE RELATIONSHIP, DOES NOT SEEK TO REPLACE IT.
The benefits of Engage Consult - for surgery users
The benefits of Engage Consult - for patients
Case Study
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbIR2vV3LwU
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What is eReception?
eReception is a website based tool, which automates all your reception functions. In simple terms, patients go on their practice's website to access e-Reception rather than telephoning their practices reception team. It is a highly effective Care Navigation tool that helps deliver business change.
The application consists of several modules, each designed to help signpost patient's queries to the right place, depending on the nature of their problem. Essentially it aims to help by-pass the GP. For instance, musculo-skeletal problems can be passed directly to the practice physiotherapist.
How does it work from the practice's perspective?
The practice receives a structured email via NHS mail. An administrator then actions each one and care navigates. Patients are sent an automated response followed by the operator generated response.
https://www.enhanceprimaryhealthcare.co.uk/ereception
Apart from the four main suppliers listed above, Leeds and Wakefield CCGs have various other suppliers on a practice basis namely;
GP Access Ltd - AskmyGP
To find out more please visit the suppliers website;
http://askmygp.uk/
Silicon Practice Ltd - FootFall
http://www.siliconpractice.co.uk/
What does the project cover? The project covers all of the CCG’s within the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership.
Who is funding the project and how long for? The system is funded by NHS England and the funding is for 3 years.
What are the solutions? Currently, there are five solutions being provided for Airedale, Bradford City, Bradford District, Calderdale,Harrogate and Rural District, Greater Huddersfield, Leeds, North Kirklees and Wakefield CCG’s namely:
· Aire Logic Ltd – Forms4Health
· eConsult Health Ltd – eConsult
· Engage Health Systems - Engage Consult
· Enhance Primary Healthcare Ltd - e-Reception
· GP Access Ltd - AskmyGP
What are some of the benefits?
· Supports great use of self-care
· Frees up GP's and patient time
· Improving services for patients
· Frees up telephone lines at practices
What support is there for deployment? The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H) Digital Team will provide support to practices through the whole implementation process and the Business Change Managers will help practices adapt the new system to their current ways of working.
What areas does this solution cover? eConsult covers the following CCG areas; Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven, Bradford City and Bradford District.
Does the solution integrate with clinical systems? The solution will allow you to upload a PDF into the clinical system at the practice.
Can the solution retrieve smoking and drinking data? (Coding) Yes, eConsult does have the functionality to retrieve data such as smoking and alcohol consumption.
Does the solution allow for proxy? Yes, the solution does allow this, however this is optional and up to the practices whether or not they want to enable this and its only parent proxy.
Does the solution allow video consultation? Not currently, however this is a future development and is in trialling stages. It is envisioned for this functionality to be accessible at the end of the online triage tool or within Care Homes.
Does the solution integrate with the NHS App? Development in terms of the integration with the NHS App is taking place and one of the first functional capabilities within this is that the App will allow patients to verify themselves to then go on and complete the online triage.
How do patients know this is for non-urgent queries only? At the start of each questionnaire, patients are prompted to indicate they are not suffering from any serious issues, e.g. chest pains, signs of a stroke, etc. In addition, each questionnaire is configured to flag to a patient where the symptoms they are describing indicates a more serious/urgent issue which requires more immediate medical attention. In both cases, the online consultation is ended.
Is the practice notified when an online consultation is ended early due to the severity of the problem? No, the practice does not receive any notification when this occurs. The responsibility lies with the patient to seek appropriate medical attention.
Can patients not registered with the practice complete an online consultation? Yes they can, however there is a secure one-way messaging system available to staff to notify the patient they need to register before they can access services offered by the practice.
Can an eConsult be completed when the practice is closed? Yes, eConsult is available 24/7 and patients will be informed to expect a response by the end of the next working day.
What is the name of the solution being deployed? The solution is called Engage Consult and it is being provided by the company named Engage Health Systems Ltd, previously known as Wiggly Amps.
What areas does this solution cover? The Engage Consult solution is being deployed in the following CCG areas; Calderdale, North Kirklees and Wakefield.
Does the solution integrate with the clinical systems? The solution has a function built within, which will upload a PDF into the clinical system at the practice.
Does the solution provide video consultation? Not currently. However, this is being worked on for future development.
Does the solution have a read coding mechanism to link with the clinical system? Engage Health System Ltd is currently working on this and has a function to allow this. However, this hasn’t gone live yet.
Does the patient know when they will receive a response from the practice when using the solution? Yes, Engage Consult has the functionality for practices to set their response time accordingly. This will flag up to the patient when they are completing their questionnaire which flags up their practices response times.
Does the solution allow for proxy? Yes, the solution allows proxy for parents and carers.
Can the solution retrieve smoking and drinking data? (Coding) This is a future development for the solution and should be completed within the next 3-6 months.
Can a patient not registered to the practice submit an online triage request? Yes, however this will be flagged once the manual patient verification within the clinical system is attempted.
Does ID verification occur within Engage Consult? No, this needs to be done by the practice.
Can instant messaging be initiated by the patient? No, this must be initiated by the practice through an online consultation request. In addition, the patient must not be submitting the request via a ‘guest’ account.
Does the solution integrate with the NHS App? Not currently, but this is part of their development work.
Meet the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Digital Team responsible for the GP Online Consultation Project. The team recently commenced the work in January 2019, working with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and suppliers to implement GP Online Consultation across practices in the West Yorkshire and Harrogate area, enabling practices to have an online triage facility for patients.
Digital Programme Manager: Dawn Greaves
Digital Project Managers: Mubashir Farooq Hayley Lockwood
Digital Business Change Managers: Richard Stokes Paul Morawski
Digital Programme Support Officers: Ruth Ali Brooke Thawley
