Communicating with your Patients

To help support your practice in communicating with your patients, we have linked to various resources which you can print as posters, use on your website or circulate via your social media channels.

Public Health England have a library of resources available in different languages for Primary Care to utilise

Hants & IOW CCG also have a range of useful resources for download.

Access to General Practice

Digital First Primary Care have developed a simplified 'three steps access model' to help explain to patients and others how many general practices are now working and how we want to encourage them to work in the future. This means a move away from a 'first come, first served' access model and towards a model gives patients flexibility in how they access care, prioritise care based on need, and gives different options in how care is them provided.

Three steps access model Poster		Help us to help you Poster

Triage Awareness Poster		Face to Face appointment Poster

Help and support for patients waiting for a hospital appointment or operation

The My Planned Care website supports people waiting for a hospital appointment, operation or treatment, and gives them advice and support while they wait. This includes access to average waiting times at their hospital and other useful advice and local services.

Patients can check the website of their allocated hospital for any information they may need before contacting their hospital or GP practice. Carers, friends, relatives and NHS teams can also see this information and, if needed, help guide people through the detail.

The site is easy-to-use and updated weekly with other advice and information on how to manage pain, keeping healthy, looking after their mental health, accessing financial help and other local support services. The site can also help people to prepare for their appointment or operation, including practical suggestions about how to manage symptoms and help prevent these from getting worse.

GP surgeries are still open and are working differently to how they did before the COVID-19 pandemic, due to a number of reasons. These posters explains why practices continue to work differently.

Working differently Poster	Online vs Phone Triage Poster

Receptionist Triage Poster	Ways to get in touch Poster

111 - Help us to help you

Just think 111 first Poster	Just think 111 first Leaflet

Building Patient Relationships

Establishing positive and trusting relationships with patients has long been recognised as an essential component of practice and is important for effective care. Wessex LMC have created a series of images for use practice use. Download the images

Campaign - Rebuild General Practice

General practice is in crisis. Patient safety is at risk. GPs from across England, Scotland, and Wales are raising the alarm. We must Rebuild General Practice. Please support the new campaign created with GPs for GPs. This campaign is funded by the British Medical Association and GPDF on behalf of the General Practice community.

Follow #RebuildGP, Twitter @RebuildGP, Visit www.rebuildgp.co.uk/about-us

Visit Wessex LMCs dedicated campaign page for campaign assets

Campaign - #NotInADaysWork

The majority of people who need support from GP Practices do so in a respectful way that helps create a safe environment for all. Sadly, there are a very small number of people who can be abusive and aggressive to both staff and other patients. To help support your practice in a zero tolerance approach here are downloadable graphics for your use.

Recent external surveys suggest that abuse of GP practice staff from patients has risen, and abuse and violence has been widely cited as a contributing factor to reduced morale amongst GP practices and other NHS staff.

Materials are available for use in Primary Care settings to encourage patients to treat NHS staff with respect. Find and download these here

Campaign - #WeArePrimaryCare

Phase 1: Abuse Means: The first phase of the campaign concentrates on stopping patient abuse towards staff working in Primary Care

Graphics, Animations, Videos

Phase 2: Info on the range of roles working in general practice, and how they can help patients make sure they get the right care at the right time

Graphics, Posters, Videos

Phase 3: Access to treatment, and common questions people ask about general practice. Resources include videos, digital graphics and posters

Graphics, Videos

Covid-19 - Infection Control Messages

Face Covering Resources for NHS Settings

The UK Health Security Agency's infection prevention control (IPC) guidance remains in place for all staff and patients in GP practices and pharmacies to ensure that everyone is protected. Please continue to encourage patients to wear a face covering to keep staff and other patients safe.

Face Covering Poster	Visting your GP Surgery Poster	Hands, Face, Space Posters

Covid-19 - Vaccination Messages

Vaccination Boosters Wessex LMCs have developed this poster which practices can adapt as needed.	Engaging Uptake Toolkits targeting groups that data has identified as being vaccine hesitant	Parents of 5-11 year olds Download the Covid guidance to share with parents of 5-11 year olds

Is your Covid-19 vaccination record showing correctly? Available for poster and also digital media

NHS App

Tell your patients about the NHS App, find the full range of resources to use here. To request pre-printed leaflets to be sent to your practice email appambassadors@nhs.net. Guidance for GP practices is also available to help you enable NHS App features in your GP IT systems, from creating appointments to activating secure non-urgent messaging.

A5 easy to read leaflet	A4 Foldable Leaflet

Printable Poster	Appointment Card

Patient Awareness of the Extended Healthcare Team

NHS England and Improvement (NHSE/I) East of England team have produced a series of useful animations to introduce the extended healthcare team to the patients, carers and service users, including introductions to individual roles supported by the ARRS Scheme:

Clinical Pharmacist / First Contact Physio / The extended Healthcare Team / General Practice Nurse / Physician Associate / Social Prescriber Link Worker

NHS General Practice Multidisciplinary Team

Public Health England have produced resources for download and production to help raise awareness of new and existing roles in the general practice multi-disciplinary team.

Find the range of recourses available here.

This leaflet explains the different team members available to help patients.

Patient Awareness of General Practice Pressures

The LMC feels this simple graphic representation of what Primary Care actually does might help start dispelling the myths out there. We need to keep pushing back against misinformation and let our patients know how hard we are working on their behalf. Please note, if you wish to use this graphic amongst your patients the originator, e-GP Learning, is happy for you to do so providing you do not edit or remove their watermark/ logo.

The BMA have produced a GP campaign factsheet (updated Oct '21) that can be used to rebut the misinformation being published in the media and to proactively include in social media posts, letters to the local press or MPs.The BMA monitor data on GP workforce, working patterns and appointment numbers to help build a picture of the level of strain GP practices in England are under. Find the latest data here