AskmyGP changes and Easter opening

Posted on April 4th, 2023

If you have used our askmyGP service over the last 3 months we hope that you will agree that the changes we made at the start of the year have improved access to our services.

During this time we have been able to assess our demand and we are receiving approximately 900 requests per week from patients needing help from a clinician.

We ask patients to assess if this is something requiring help in the next 24 hours or if this is something that can wait. Approximately 2/3 of the requests we receive ask for help within 24 hours and the remainder are happy to wait.

One challenge with this level of demand is that managing those requests and acute queries coming in late in the day can be difficult for a clinician to manage on top of an already full workload.

To try to manage this better we will be turning askmyGP off at 4pm and then turning it back on at 6:30pm (on a Friday it will remain off until 6:30pm on Sunday). If you feel from 4pm that you can wait until the next day then please put your request in from 6:30pm when the system becomes live again. If you feel after this time that your condition cannot wait then please contact 111 or 999 if you become acutely unwell.

We believe that our system offers fair access to all, whether using our online system or not and these minor changes will allow us to prioritise care.

This change will start from Thursday the 6^th April.

Please note that due to the long Easter weekend the surgery will be closed on Friday 7^th April and will reopen on Tuesday 11^th April.

AskmyGP will be turned off from 4pm on Thursday 6^th until 7:30am on Tuesday 11^th. If you require assistance over that time please use the 111 service.

Thank you.