NHS England, as part of its Digital Transformation Strategy, is encouraging the use of technology to empower patients and make it easier for clinicians to deliver high quality care, enabling patients to navigate services seamlessly. The practice is participating in a pilot scheme for a new digital service, Engage Consult, which allows you to contact them online from your PC, tablet or smartphone.
You can choose whether to consult with a clinician about a medical problem, send a message about an administration issue or get self-help advice.
Just answer a series of simple questions and a report containing your answers is sent securely to the Practice. This report helps the Centre to resolve your request quickly, by directing it to the most suitable member of their practice team, and allows the clinician to choose the best course of action for you.
Engage Consult is available 24 hours a day and the Centre responds to requests during their same day service Hours of 8am - 3pm. Requests sent outside of these hours are reviewed the next working day.
To use the system, please visit their website www.sunburyhealthcentre.co.uk and click on the Online Consultations Link.
The pilot scheme is running initially for 6 months, enabling the practice to iron out any teething problems. Assuming the pilot is successful, they will gradually transition from using Patient Access to using Engage Consult for online appointment bookings. The other functions of Patient Access e.g. prescription ordering or viewing test results, will remain available.
Over the coming months the Centre will be holding drop-in sessions for anyone who would like a demonstration of how to use this system – further details will be available on the practice website.
Click here to see the presentation given to the recent meeting of the Patients Participation Group
