preGP™ is the Online Consultation solution from myGP Connect. Unlike other solutions, preGP does not attempt to “triage” or “diagnose” a patient.
Instead, the service uses education to advise a patient of alternatives to a GP appointment, and empowers the patient to take action if they wish.
preGP does not generate new tasks or workflow items. Instead, it automates the avoidance of unnecessary GP appointments and promotes patients providing further context about their health issue where an appointment is required.
Avoiding Unnecessary GP Appointments
In 2015, the ‘Making Time in General Practice’ report found that 27% of GP appointments were unnecessary and could have been handled largely by self-help, alternative clinicians, and services within the local health economy.
preGP targets the avoidance of 12% of unnecessary GP appointments that trigger its functionality during the booking process within myGP®, the patient facing services app from myGP Connect.
Is it safe?
In 2017, iPLATO Healthcare were funded by SBRI (an organisation that funds innovative technology for the NHS) to develop and pilot preGP. The service was deployed in a South-East London practice for 30 days. The service generated practice efficiency savings of £1,949.
An independent health economist reviewed the service for SBRI and found that preGP could save the NHS over £150 million annually.
Results of Pilot
Other Online Consultation solutions on the market require practices to avoid the use of Patient Online apps and use a separate website instead. This does not promote the use of patient facing services and can lead to poor performance in the shared commitment within the GMS contract.
However, preGP is built directly into the myGP patient facing services app. This means you can make use of the benefits of preGP, whilst simultaneously meeting your contractual requirements for Patient Online.
In fact, the better you perform against your Patient Online requirements using myGP, the more benefits you will see from preGP as more patients will trigger the functionality.
Meeting Patient Online Targets and Using GP Resources Wisely
preGP, like all other myGP Connect services, is a cloud-based technology. There is nothing to install, and no adjustments required to your practice website – unlike other products on the market.
Our experienced deployment team will activate the service and guide you through the configuration. The service uses existing workflows within your clinical system and does not generate any new tasks or reports for your clinical staff. Instead, the service either automatically cancels an unnecessary GP appointment, or books an appointment as any other patient facing services app would.
There are no patches, fixes, enhancements, or integrations to worry about.
You can always check .//service-status/ to check on the technical status of our services. preGP only requires myGP to be active and have appointments available.
