Last week I was working on a new timetable for our surgery, thinking about how and when we might switch back to letting patients book directly into face-to-face appointments. We’d like be able offer choice of telephone, video, or in-person consultations, with the option written questions too. Despite recent NHS England document suggesting that GPs should aim embed total triage we’re concerned i...

BACKGROUND Despite substantial use of the telephone in health care, only a few studies have formally evaluated the appropriateness of telephone-based management for acute medical problems. The accuracy of patients' report of signs and symptoms remains unknown. OBJECTIVE We compared the agreement between patient self-assessment and clinician assessment on the typical signs and symptoms of grou...

OBJECTIVES To measure the impact of the urgent care telephone service NHS 111 on the emergency and urgent care system. DESIGN Controlled before and after study using routine data. SETTING Four pilot sites and three control sites covering a total population of 3.6 million in England, UK. PARTICIPANTS AND DATA Routine data on 36 months of use of emergency ambulance service calls and inciden...

BACKGROUND Confidentiality is considered a cornerstone of the medical consultation. However, the telephone, previously used mainly to negotiate appointments, has become increasingly employed as a means of consultation and may pose new problems in respect to maintaining confidentiality. OBJECTIVE As part of a qualitative investigation into the views of patients, doctors, nurses and administrat...

BACKGROUND Priority grade assessment according to urgency level of the patients (triage) is considered vital in emergency medicine casualties. Little is known of the experiences of pre-hospital emergency medicine triage performed by General Practitioners (GPs) in the community. In this study we bring such experiences from a Norwegian island community, with special emphasis on over- and undertri...