NOW LIVE
We have moved to a new system that will allow patients to book appointments without ringing the practice.
Using an online system known as ‘smart triage’, patients requesting an appointment will be asked a series of questions about their problem. In most cases, they will then be provided with a choice of appointments with the most appropriate clinician(s), in the most appropriate timeframe, based on their clinical need.
We hope that this will result in shorter waiting times, especially for routine appointments. The aim is also to help prevent the 8am rush and long waits on the telephones.
Patients will also be able to submit administrative requests via Rapid Health – things like requests for a sick/fit note, queries about doctors’ letters, following up blood test results can all be sent to us in this way.
For anyone who is able to do so, we ask that from 6 May, you submit your appointment requests and admin queries through Rapid Health. You will be able to access the system from our website homepage www.holdernesshealth.nhs.uk where you just need to click the green ‘Start Now’ button at the top of the page.
If you are unable to use the website, please phone or come in to the surgery in the normal way. Our Patient Services Team will complete the triage questions with you.
We are excited to be moving to this new system which we genuinely believe will be better for patients. We have discussed the changes with our Patient Participation Group who are very supportive of the change.
What you need to do to be ready to use the new system
To be able to use the new system, you must have a current email address registered with us. Our staff have been checking this with patients who have been contacting us over recent weeks. If you haven’t been asked yet, there are several ways that you can provide us with your up to date email address:
- Update your contact details in the NHS App – just login, choose the person icon (top right) to access your account, select ‘Settings’ and then ‘Manage NHS Account, then ‘Contact Details’. See the more detailed instructions below for screenshots.
- Reply to a text that we may send with you if we are missing your email address
- Click here to update your contact details on our website
- Ask any member of our Patient Services Team to update your email address
Important Information for Parents
For children under the age of 16, you will be able to use the same link to submit your appointment request or you can call/visit the surgery as usual. However, your request will be reviewed first by our duty doctor and we will contact you to arrange your child’s appointment.
Further Information and Support
We will be sharing more information with patients in the following ways over the coming weeks:
- Posters & information sheets in our surgeries
- Text messages direct to patients
- Social media posts in Facebook and Instagram @HoldernessHealth
- Further information added to our website
- Our main patient Privacy Notice has been updated and we have produced a new Privacy Notice relating specifically to the new system. These can be viewed here.
On the week that we go live with the new system, we will have staff available on-site to assist anyone who wants to use the system and needs some help with navigating it for the first time.
We will also be offering a series of digital drop-in sessions when we can show you how to use the new system and also help with other digital issues like using the NHS App. Dates and times of these sessions will be promoted once the dates are set.
We have produced a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ document which you can access below for more information.
We will be running some digital drop-in sessions to offer help to any patients who need support, please see poster of sessions for details.
