Improving how you contact Tudor Lodge from Friday 01 December

Posted by: kara - Posted on:

TLHC WEB DIGITAL TRIAGE GRAPHIC

From Friday 01 December 2023, we’re making changes to improve your experience of contacting Tudor Lodge and getting what you need from us faster and easier. This moves us in line with new NHS contract requirements and responds to recent patient feedback in our survey.

Contacting the surgery online for appointments and queries

From Friday 01 December, contacting us online is the new way to make appointments or send admin queries. 

We’re encouraging all patients to skip the telephone queue and fill in our online form to make appointments and send queries available through our website or Tudor Lodge App.

All online forms go directly to a GP for review. Our team constantly monitors and responds to online requests throughout the day and aims to respond within two hours. Online requests made after 3pm (weekdays) or 11am (Saturdays) may not be dealt with until the following working day. 

We will use the information you give us to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or health professional to help you. 

Ordering repeat prescriptions, checking test results and cancelling appointments you no longer need can also be done through the online form or the NHS App if you already use it. Read more about using the NHS App on NHS.uk.

Phoning the surgery for appointments and queries

From Friday 01 December, there are new options to select from when you call the surgery to guide you quickly and easily to whatever you need. 

For patients with a mobile phone, you can skip the queue and receive a text message with a link to book your appointment or send us your query through an online form on our website.

For patients who do not or cannot go online and need to call the surgery instead, our care navigators can complete the same online form for you over the phone. 

Why we are making these changes

We’re always looking for ways to improve our service to better serve you and our community at Tudor Lodge. Here are the reasons we are making changes to the way you contact us:

  • New NHS contract requirements that came out over the summer mean GP practices are required to take steps to provide patients with an appropriate response each time they contact the practice and in a timely manner. Nobody likes waiting when they are ill and as health professionals, we don’t either. To make sure that all patients are dealt with fairly and to make sure our team can manage this requirement safely, we have chosen to follow the same process regardless of how, or when you contact us.
  • Many patients told us in our recent patient survey that they already use our website to book appointments and send requests online and say it’s easy and convenient. You can take your time to explain your needs in writing rather than feeling rushed and flustered on a short phone call and share sensitive information with us without having to explain it over the phone to someone unfamiliar. 
  • For those patients who use the internet but haven’t contacted us online before, don’t worry. We’ve worked hard to make our website easy to navigate, but if you need help figuring out where to start, talk to Dot, our new digital assistant. You can find her in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. Tell her what you need, and she’ll take you to the right page in no time.

By directing all patients to use online services where possible from Friday 01 December, we can:

  • Make sure more patients’ needs are met in a timely manner.
  • Free up the telephone lines for those without internet access.
  • Improve our overall practice efficiency and meet our NHS contract requirements of providing a safe, responsive service to all our patients including the most vulnerable in our community.

Like anything new, it can take time to feel like normal, and it’s going to be different for our team for a few weeks too as they get used to everything, but we’re confident it’s going to improve things for patients and the Tudor Lodge team alike.

If you have any questions or concerns ahead of Friday 01 December, please contact us or talk to a member of our team.