With last week’s budget announcement, general practice is set to face a tough year. There’s no increase in core funding and higher National Insurance costs have been declared - although this is being contested - meaning practices are tasked with delivering more for patients with fewer resources. In this climate, it’s essential to maximise efficiency in every area of practice.
At Accurx, we understand these pressures and have developed our features and products to help practices streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and optimise patient access—all while managing financial constraints. Here’s how Accurx can support practices in navigating these challenges.
Understanding the budget’s impact
The recent budget announcement has outlined several key factors that will affect general practice:
- No core funding increase: With no substantial uplift in core funding, GP practices face significant limitations in addressing operational costs and expanding resources.
- Higher National Insurance contributions: Increased NI costs for staff will strain practice budgets, making it difficult to expand or maintain staffing levels (although The Royal College of GPs has written to the Health Secretary calling for GP surgeries to be protected from the rise).
And with demand continuing to grow, alongside stagnant funding, practices will need to find ways to meet this demand with their existing resources.
In this environment, any tools that can enhance efficiency and improve patient care can make a big difference. Accurx provides a range of features and products designed to support general practice in managing workload, improving efficiency, and optimising patient flow.
Streamlining patient demand with total triage
Running a total triage model through Accurx can transform how practices manage patient demand. With this model, all inbound patient requests through the online triage form are streamlined into the Accurx inbox, allowing staff to assign tasks to each other and prioritise patients by clinical need. GP staff can then use Accurx’s features to book appointments for patients who need them, or handle their care through messaging, for example sending advice through an SMS message. For hundreds of GP practices, this approach is reducing appointment demand, a critical outcome as practices handle increasing patient numbers without additional funding. It’s also optimising resource use through ensuring the patient sees the right member of the practice team, and is improving patient satisfaction by reducing waiting times for essential services.
Enhancing admin efficiency
Administrative burden contributes significantly to staff stress and burnout, especially when financial constraints limit hiring. Accurx is designed to ease these pressures, helping practices operate more efficiently with existing staff:
- Automated messaging: Automating routine communication using scheduled messages and appointment reminders allows practices to respond swiftly to patient queries without manual intervention, saving valuable time.
- Shared inbox: A centralised inbox enables practices to coordinate patient communication and streamline administrative tasks across the team, reducing the back-and-forth that can lead to delays and inefficiencies.
- Self-Booking appointments: Self-Book empowers patients to schedule their own appointments at a time and date that suits them, freeing up staff time for more complex tasks and reducing phone traffic.
By automating and streamlining these workflows, Accurx can help practices reallocate administrative resources, giving clinicians more time to focus on patient care and supporting cost-effective operations.
Minimising DNAs
Missed appointments are costly. Each no-show represents a missed opportunity to care for other patients. With Accurx’s Self-Book feature, patients are empowered to manage their appointments directly. Self-Book also reduces the risk of missed slots by sending reminders and allowing patients to reschedule if necessary, lowering the administrative burden on practice staff.
By reducing the volume of missed appointments, Self-Book ensures that appointment slots are used effectively. This means that practices can maintain higher appointment availability without needing to increase staff - this is particularly important given current budget constraints.
Data-driven decision making to optimise resources
Data is an invaluable tool for GP practices, especially during times of financial pressure. Accurx’s reporting dashboard provides practices with insights into patient demand patterns, which can inform decision-making around staffing, appointment allocation, and resource management. By analysing trends in patient enquiries and appointment requests, practices can allocate resources more effectively, aligning staff time with patient needs.
These insights allow practices to proactively manage busy periods and allocate time and resources where they are most needed. Data-driven decision making not only supports budget-conscious operations but also helps practices maintain quality patient care, even amidst rising demand.
Supporting staff morale through automation
The pressures facing GP staff are real and significant, with burnout rates rising and retention becoming increasingly challenging. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, Accurx helps alleviate some of this burden. Features such as automated messaging and patient self-booking mean that staff can focus on higher-value tasks, which enhances job satisfaction and reduces the risk of burnout.
With these tools in place, practice staff can dedicate more time to direct patient care, improving both patient outcomes and staff morale. In an environment where hiring additional staff is difficult, retaining and supporting current staff is essential.
We’re here to help
We’re committed to helping practices navigate this challenging environment. Please reach out to our team if you’d like guidance on maximising Accurx’s features, or any help with training and implementation. Together, we can ensure that your practice remains resilient, patient-focused, and efficient.
Contact customer.success@accurx.com to see how Accurx can help your GP practice, ICB or PCN.