Care Navigation to help patients – What is Care Navigation?
The North Road Suite Practice is part of the North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group (NKCCG) and part of CURO Health Care Limited which is the ‘Federated Group of Practices’. The Federated Group of Practices ‘Curo Ltd’ is sometimes commissioned to provides services to the population of North Kirklees.
Clinical Teams and patients are well aware the demands on appointment availability and that they need to be used as efficiently and effectively as possible. Many appointments are wasted because the patient did not actually need to see the GP, maybe another Health Care Professional, such as their Local Pharmacy. Primary Care Service Providers, NHS England, Clinical Commissioning Groups and Patient Representative Groups have been working together to formulate systems to support and enable new methods of care provision while also trying to cater to the needs of all generations of service users.
Technology is playing an even more important role in this. This is why we also offer a full range of online services for 24/7 access to health care. Its quick and easy to register just ask any of our Care Navigators for details.
Curo Ltd have developed a system called ‘Care Navigation’ for all GP member Practices to follow and the GP Partners at the Practice have introduced this new system to enable our patients access the right service or Health Care Professional.
Our ‘Care Navigators’ have been trained to follow the system process and the instructions provided to them by our GP Partners.
The ‘Care Navigator’ who takes your call will ask you a few questions to assess your ‘care needs’ so they can direct you to the most appropriate health care professional which may not always be a Doctor; it may be another member of the clinical team or your Local Pharmacy. Your call is always in the strictest confidence. Our GP’s are asking patients to try and assist our ‘Care Navigators’ as much as you can.
In some cases as part of the ‘Care Navigation Service’it may be necessary for the patient to discuss their condition in more detail directly with a GP or our Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANP) and Nurse Practitioners (NP) who works as part of our GP Team. Sometimes patients don’t need an appointment they just need reassurance advice from a clinician.
The ‘Care Navigator’ may book you on the ‘GP assessment list’ so that the GP or ANP can ring you back to discuss your condition in more detail. The Doctor or ANP can then decide if you need an appointment to be seen urgently, or at a routine or some other type of clinical intervention .
We have been operating this service for a number of months now and it has been well received and supported by patients who have used it.
GP Partners Dr Sharmala Ramalingam, Dr A Ramasamy, Dr Arief Ahamed.
Practice Development Manager – Justin Wood
Senior Care Advisers/Navigators – Claire Scott & Jenny Joof
