Helen Salisbury: New telephones, but no one to answer them

The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England published a report last week about how they intend to improve access to primary care.1 The most concrete elements are funds for new telephone systems and trying to offload some GP work onto community pharmacies. The reception has not been positive, partly because many surgeries are already doing nearly all the things in the plan and are still drowning in patient demand.Cloud based telephony could count as a small advance: it means that patients, instead of getting an engaged tone, will now learn that they’re 20th in the queue. But our ability to see how many calls are waiting—and for how long—won’t create more receptionists to answer the phone or increase the number of appointments available when patients do get through. It reminds me of a mad, half built road scheme in the town where I grew up, which (after…
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