GP Connect

Introduction to GP Connect

GP Connect is a service that allows GP practices and authorised clinical staff to share and view GP practice clinical information and data between IT systems, quickly and efficiently.

GP Connect has been enabled on EMIS clinical system to meet the operational requirements of the Covid Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS).

GP practices need to configure GP Connect to allow appointment sharing with CCAS so patients suspected of suffering from coronavirus (COVID-19) can be referred to their GP.

How to configure GP Connect to allow electronic transfer of Covid Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS) patients to primary care – GP Connect and Covid Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS).

EMIS configuration for NHS 111 COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS) –EMIS configuration for CCAS.

For more information visit GP Connect (NHS111 and CCAS) updates from NHS Digital.

Latest update and guidance from NHS Digital – 3 June 2020

GP Connect has published Standard operating procedure (SOP) for general practice in the context of coronavirus (COVID-19) which can be downloaded from this page – https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/managing-coronavirus-covid-19-in-general-practice-sop/

 NHS Digital have also added some guidance videos to help in setting up CCAS appointment sharing. These can be found here (https://digital.nhs.uk/services/gp-connect/set-up-gp-connect-in-your-gp-practice-clinical-system ). You can also contact the GP Connect team at gpconnect@nhs.net.

General updates (this update has been altered for Stockport practices)

SOP and guidance

On previous calls we’ve discussed that a new SOP will be issued from NHS England but that we were also hopeful that some guidance detailing how to implement the SOP would be coming out shortly. Recent discussions with the 111 providers have resulted in an agreement that the 111 health advisors will no longer provide patients with a time for their appointment. A patient will be told, and the text message will reflect this, that their GP practice will ring them back but not at a specific time. The introduction of this process change means that for practices who want to have one list for both the CCAS and NHS 111 appointments this is now possible. Effectively both sets of appointments would be treated within the practice as a worklist and patients would be clinically reviewed and contact prioritised accordingly.

We have to date advised and talked practices through setting up two separate lists and would be happy to speak to practices who want to change their setup to reflect one list.

TIMEFRAMES – we have been advised that there is a national call planned where this will be discussed and the timescales agreed as to when the health advisors will stop giving patients a specific time appointment slot. In order to manage expectations timeframes for the introduction of the new process have not yet been agreed but we will update you on progress. Therefore we need sites to keep their two separate lists and review the configuration to support booking until further notice.  

1 appointment per 500 patients  

There has been some confusion around the 1 appointment per 500 patients but we can confirm that this target encompasses BOTH normal NHS 111 appointments and CCAS appointments. We were originally advising practices to make 20 appointments available for the CCAS but considering the low number of appointments that are currently being booked into GP practices from the CCAS it makes more sense to start off with a smaller number and flex the number of appointments across the two services as demand dictates. What is really key in making these appointments available is that they are spread throughout the day. Feedback from the NHS 111 providers indicates that appointments made available first thing in the day are rarely utilised. Appointments are more likely to be utilised if practices make them available mid to late morning and spread through the day.

National Data Sharing and NHS 111 sharing group

The Government with agreement of the BMA have invoked national data sharing as part of the response to COVID-19. What this means is that all organisations that have an assured consumer solution (111, GP, CCAS etc…) can view patient records for any assured provider solution (GP) and where configured to do so could book into any appointment slots.

Practically the 111 providers are supporting each other which may mean that one of your patients goes through to a 111 provider that is not your regular 111 provider. In this instance that 111 provider may need to book that patient into their registered practice. In which case the NHS 111 slots we’ve previously asked practices to configure will now need to incorporate ALL 111 providers to accommodate for the scenario outlined above. Please find attached the list of all 111 providers and how they are displayed in both TPP and EMIS and this information has been incorporated into the guidance.  

Telephone appointments

Although practices are aware that in the majority of cases all appointments are now telephone appointments it is key that when setting up both the CCAS and the NHS 111 appointments the telephone option is selected from the dropdown (EMIS Web). This information is pulled into the 111 provider system and clearly states to the health advisor that the appointment is a telephone appointment which reduces the likelihood that the patient will be told to attend the practice. Please find attached a screenshot which demonstrates this.

If a practice does not configure for Telephone appointments then the call handler will see this screen, making it easier for mistakes to be made.

Guidance

As simple as this sounds it is really important that practices follow each step in the configuration of their systems otherwise the appointments may not be visible to the intended organisations.

EMIS Web

Telephone appointments

We are aware that practices have been instructed to make all appointments telephone or video consultation appointments. In order for this information to display in the NHS 111 or CCAS systems, we require the practices to go into their setup and select slot Status Type as Telephone from the dropdown.

Configuration to limit organisations from seeing each other’s appointments

We have made aware of an option within EMIS Web which must be selected in order to restrict the session to the associated sharing group. This option is found on the Session Filters screen and next Type practices should select Reserve.

If the session is already active, you WILL have to delete the template and create a new one in order to apply the changes. Unfortunately going into an existing one and amending does not rectify this.