Deerness Park Patient Newsletter – October 2025

Posted by: Katherine - Posted on:

Welcome to our fifth edition of our patient newsletter.

As always please see below a recap on our appointment booking system.

APPOINTMENTS-ECONSULT

In February 2023 we introduced a “clinical triage” system (econsult) for appointments to comply with the government’s requirement to improve patient access.  This new system means that however you contact the practice, be that by telephone or using the online econsult, all requests are reviewed by a GP who decides which member of the practice team is the most appropriate to respond to your situation. 

This may mean for example you are offered an appointment with one of the wider team of clinical specialists at the practice which could be a GP, Advanced Nurse Practitioner or Health Care Assistant based upon the GP’s assessment of the information you have provided.

Just a reminder of how the appointment/econsult system works: –

There are several ways you can access the practice for medical help (please use econsult as your first choice when contacting us if you can)

  1. Via econsult online, on the app or via our practice website between the hours of 07:00am and 12:00pm. You do not need to register to use econsult, just click the get started button.
  2. If you are unable to use the econsult in this way, then you should phone the practice between the hours of 08:00am and 12:00pm…. you should find a much smaller call queue these days due to the online facility.
  3. Ask us when you are next in to send the econsult link to you via text- then you have it handy for whenever you may need it.

* If you are unable to use the online service, and you call the practice you will still be asked to provide details of your symptoms to a member of the reception team. This is to ensure the GP reviewing your request has all the information they need to make sure you are seen by the right member of the team.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

There is a GP on duty from 08:00am to 18:00pm who is responsible for reviewing all the requests for medical help that day. This is usually one of our GP Partners- Dr Kisler, Dr Lucas, Dr Samy or Dr Winchester. The GP uses the information provided in the econsult to determine what happens next, at times they may request additional information. They then work with the team to arrange appropriate care.

IN EVERY CASE THE GP MAKES THE DECISION ON THE OUTCOME AND APPOINTMENT. This could be a same day appointment- telephone or face to face with a GP, an advanced nurse practitioner or sometimes they may ask for further investigation from one of the nursing or Healthcare Assistant team ahead of an appointment with the GP or nurse practitioner. It may be that the appropriate appointment is a little further away- but will always be within 2 weeks.

In some instances, the GP may respond via text or may advise a referral into the local pharmacy.

Whatever the next step the GP decides, a member of the team will contact you and inform you of this.

RECENT UPDATES

  1. You will now hear an extra option on the phone line, which enables you to confirm and cancel any upcoming appointments without waiting in a queue.
  2. Since the call back function on the prescription line has proved a success, we have now added this function to the appointment line and lowered the threshold…no more hanging on the line. We will call you back.
  3. NHS England have printed a national blueprint on the total triage system adopted here at Deerness Park. Thank you all for your support in adapting to this change with us.
  4. You may have recently been invited for an NHS Health Check if eligible and will meet two of our new faces who have been appointed to work on these checks and target our patients who we do not see for long periods of time. We are already seeing some huge success from this. If you do receive a text please book in, these checks are key to prevention and management of any risk of long-term chronic disease such as diabetes.
  5. Did Not Attends- we are focusing on a new process for managing patients who frequently do not attend for appointments, you will see on our social media and screens in practice the monthly figures for workload as well as appointments that were lost due to did not attends. Texts are sent to remind patients of appointments, if this appointment is missed, follow up texts are sent. Numbers are tracked and appear on patient records.

MEET THE TEAM

Each newsletter will introduce you to members of our team.

Helen Fletcher

Helen is our care coordinator in practice. This is a relatively new role to practice but is already proving to be a valuable one.

Helen is here to help support you with this and to help connect you with the services you may need.

Care Coordinators can support people to become more active in their own health and care and are skilled in assessing peoples changing needs. They are also effective in bringing together multidisciplinary teams to support people’s complex health and care needs in a way that is personalised for them.

Care Coordinators are at the centre of a person’s care. They walk alongside the person and are uniquely placed to see the bigger picture. This could range from clinical care (routine health checks, screening appointments etc), to how their social interactions support their wellbeing (local support groups, charities etc)

If you feel our Care Coordinator can help or support you please contact Helen on 0191 5658849 or email helen.fletcher40@nhs.net

Jamiee-Rose Gibb

Jamiee is our reception manager here in practice. Jamiee has worked at Deerness Park for 5-year, previous experience included work in secondary care. Jamiee is responsible for the day to day running of the reception and the reception team ensuring fair accessibility for all patients and managing the patient journey.

Should you need support regarding appointments, and communication with the practice Jamiee would be your first contact. She works across 4 days, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

PPG

Our net practice PPG will be held on 7th January 2026 so if you have any thoughts/concerns you would like addressed please drop an email over to nencicb-sun.dpark@nhs.net and we can add this to the agenda.

Our last meeting was held on 1st October 2025. Discussion focused on NHS contract changes, Autumn covid and flu campaigns and the new DNA process.

Thank you, Kirsty and the Deerness Park Team.