Hal Brace, MSK Clinical Service Manager and Physiotherapy Advanced Practitioner at Connect Health was recently invited to speak on the Ockham Healthcare Podcast, a healthcare consultancy, with Chair and company director, Ben Gowland and Dr Anji Curry, GP in South Tyneside, Clinical Director for PCN South and Clinical Lead for the Federation.
Dr Anji explained the reasons for and the process of appointing the Connect Health team to work with the South Tyneside clinics she runs. She commented that the Connect Health team is flexible, has a good understanding of primary care and has history and a trusting relationship with the South Tyneside community.
After working in the region as the South Tyneside Community Musculoskeletal Service for over 5 years, Anji was confident that Connect Health could offer a service that suited the needs of the team as well as their clients. Anji and her team were also mindful that Connect could help her team to become more efficient, gain better client feedback and overcome any challenges they may face, like an unplanned pandemic. The effect the pandemic had on the way the team worked was game changing as it forced them into remote working and telephone consultations, rather than the usual face-to-face appointments.
83% of patients are happy with the support they receive.
Once Connect Health had been introduced into the teams, it was found that between May and June, they saved approximately 105 hours of GP time, equating to around 25 sessions or consultations. During a pilot recommended to Anji by the CCG, Connect Health integrated the physiotherapy services into PCN South. Connect Health took the approach of conducting a number of mini audit cycles in order to routinely monitor and rapidly respond to any problems that arise. Connect Health was assigned the task of coming up with a solution that is appropriate to help FCPs to thrive.
Some of the biggest challenges, Hal mentioned, was that there were lots of GP practices just struggling to keep their heads above water, clinics were trying to adapt to a new way of working whilst also trying to manage the influx of queries and calls they were receiving because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the Connect Health pilot, Hal and the team were able to discover what worked best for each practice and how to implement changes without causing different departments, whether they were GPs, Receptionists etc. to be overwhelmed. Adapting to different workloads was essential to avoid any department being overworked. As a team Connect was able to listen to the various job roles and adopt systems and practices that would help them to become more efficient in day to day working. For example, Connect Health found that the way to empower receptionists was to get patients to the person they need to speak to as quickly as possible, to reduce wait time and increase patient satisfaction.
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