York Medical Group Meeting

York Medical Group Meeting outcome.

A meeting was held with the chief executive of York Medical Group Mr Zulf Ali on 24th January 2023, to address potential concerns Woodthorpe residents may have regarding contact with the doctors.

The following is a representation of the replies to our concerns.

1. How do people without the internet contact the doctor’s surgery?

If contact with the surgery is required then people can call in at the surgeries or telephone

to make an appointment. The call back system ("Call Buster") allowing you to end the call

and be called back by the doctors has now been turned back on. This is turned off during

times when there is excessive sickness and increased demand to better manage our limited

appointments.

2. Do you have an email address that we can publish on our FB page and on our website?

No but York medical Group has introduced a Virtual Health Assistant

(https://www.yorkmedicalgroup.co.uk/virtual-health-assistant/) which can be used for a

variety of purposes. Zulf has confirmed that a ‘general enquiry’ button will be included on

this facility very soon. It will be included as part of our development plan of our website.

The bulk of enquiries can be made through the various buttons and will go directly to the

person who will deal with it to speed up the process. Zulf has asked that people use this

and find the button that most closely matches their need.

3. Can the Community Group have a link on our FB page to yours and on our website?

Yes. Woodthorpe Community Group are to publish links on our Facebook Page and web site

to help residents have easier access to the doctor.

4. Do you reply to messages from your FB page?

The best way to contact the doctors is either through the Virtual Health Assistant (VHA) or

by telephone. Facebook messaging, text, or Whatsapp is currently not available for contact

although this may be reviewed in the future.

5. Are you happy for us to let the community know the outcome of this meeting?

Yes please see above.

6. What are the actual opening hours now of the surgery? Could we know when

Woodthorpe Surgery will be open for 5 days per week?

The opening hours of the surgeries is shown on the website and Woodthorpe surgery will

soon be open for 5 days per week and not 4 as is the current situation. This is subject to the

various challenges we are experiencing within the NHS and our expectation is for the site to

be fully operational by September at the latest.

7. Klinik (the online appointment questionnaire) is rather cumbersome at the moment. Do

you envisage any changes to that system?

Yes we agree it is cumbersome and it was the first system we have used for patient access.

We are in the process of purchasing a new simpler more intuitive system with all other

surgeries in York and we have developed VHA to do some of the basic tasks that patients

require us to do on their behalf.

8. If a patient wants to be referred to a private hospital or specialist, what is the procedure?

If a patient would like a private referral, they should contact their private provider initially to

ascertain which consultant and hospital they will accept referral to. They would then make

an appointment with the GP for their complaint and give this information to enable them to

write a referral letter to the appropriate consultant. The patient should provide the

information at the appointment to ensure a smooth referral process.