Care Navigation

We will soon be introducing a new system to help with care navigation at the Surgery.  A telephone signposting and care navigation toolkit will shortly be available throughout the practice, and this has been tailored and written by our GP’s and clinical team.  In future, when you contact the surgery for assistance, our reception team will be working through the toolkit to ensure you are being directed to the most appropriate course of care, and the words you hear being delivered are those our clinicians would be saying to you if they were in front of you.    

What will Care Navigation mean at Fishguard Health Centre?

Care Navigation will be used by members of our reception team to help you get the right help from the right place. Staff will work with you to ensure that you are signposted to the right support at the right time.

Using the toolkit will allow our receptionists to direct you to the best member of the practice healthcare team to deal with medical issues and help connect you with the most appropriate service for any other support you might need.

Our reception staff will not offer any clinical advice, all medical concerns will be referred on to the practice healthcare team.

What are the benefits for patients?

Patients are more likely to see the right person the first time and may be seen sooner than they would have done if they were to see a GP. Care navigation allows patients to better understand their options and increases patient choice.  The toolkit has been uniquely tailored by the practice GP’s to make sure it’s relevant to our patients.  This means that the words you are hearing by our reception staff are those our clinicians would be saying to you if they were in front of you.

A recent study by the NHS Alliance found that on average 27% of GP appointments were found to be potentially avoidable with many of these patients being better served by another member of the practice team.

By linking patients with the most appropriate care, we can help to reduce the number of avoidable GP appointments releasing GP appointments for those patients most in need. Linking patients with other members of the practice team also results in reduce patient waiting times and faster access to care for patients.

What happens when I speak to a member of our reception team?

Staff will take you through the toolkit to identify the wide range of clinical skills available in the practice and what alternative health services are available in the local area as well as how to link patients with support for non-medical needs.

They will ask you some basic questions about your current health problem or query and identify the most appropriate source of care.

Will my conversations with the reception team be confidential?

Yes. All staff are trained in and uphold the same principles of confidentiality.

Does this mean I won’t get to see a GP?

Absolutely not, we will endeavour to book you a GP appointment if that is what you want.  A note that the offer of ‘Care Navigation’ was declined will be added to your record as part of our on-going quality and monitoring of the service.

What differences will I experience when contacting the surgery?

You may find that the first person you speak to at the practice may ask you for more information than they have in the past.  They are not clinicians and are not attempting to diagnose your problem or offer clinical advise, they’re gathering as much information as they can to make sure you’re provided with co-ordinated patient-centred care and support.  There is growing evidence that this demonstrates benefits for patients and carers.

Has this service been used by other surgeries?

Yes, and the feedback has been positive, patients have been happy that they can get an outcome for their problem without having to wait or speak to a GP and staff have found that it’s allowed better way of signposting patients to the most appropriate service, resulting in GP appointments being made more available to those patients that need them.