Last week, Julian Knight MP (Solihull) met with the senior leaders at Solihull Healthcare Partnership to discuss GP appointments and telephone waiting times, in light of the concerns raised with him from constituents struggling to access GP appointments. During his visit, Julian was able to sit down with the Chief Executive to raise some of the specific cases that Julian has been informed about in recent months. Julian also met with call centre staff and healthcare navigators who highlighted some of the technology that Solihull Healthcare Partnership has introduced to reduce waiting times and to triage patients more effectively.
Following on the announcement from the Department for Health & Social Care in the summer, new data on GP provision by providers is set to be released to better inform patients on how their provider is delivering for patients. This new information will include data sets on telephone waiting times and the number of appointments delivered. This will allow patients better choice on deciding their GP provider.
Solihull Healthcare Partnership presented data to Julian that shows that in the last year the provider delivered over 272,000 appointments for patients, the vast majority of which were within a few days. However, Julian made it clear that it is not acceptable for patients to be experiencing excessive waiting times on the telephone and Julian pressed SHP to explore better uses of technology to help reduce waiting times. That said, with the re-opening of the Solihull Minor Injuries Unit, it is anticipated that demand will be diverted from Solihull Healthcare Partnership.
Julian Knight MP said “I want to thank Solihull Healthcare Partnership for giving me the opportunity to discuss current GP provision and to allow me to raise specific cases with them that constituents have raised with me. I welcome the promise from SHP that improvements have been made, and I look forward to working with the partnership so we can continue driving up standards in GP provision for the people of Solihull”.
