Local people across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are now able to book more appointments with different healthcare professionals at GP practices, meaning they can be seen quicker and cared for in the best possible way.
GP practices across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, carry out hundreds of thousands of appointments every month and more patients than ever are accessing appointments.
Not all these appointments though are made with a GP, as there is a team of healthcare professionals working in each practice who are specially trained to help you with your specific health concern. Within a GP practice you will find mental health practitioners, paramedics, nurses, pharmacists, dieticians and many more. When you contact your practice, you may be offered an appointment with one of these specialists if they are best placed to help you on your road to recovery.
This month, NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight is launching the ‘It Takes A Team’ public information campaign to highlight the different specialists working within GP practices. The type of support available in each practice can vary depending on the specialist help needed.
The 12-month campaign which launches this week will throw a spotlight on a different specialist role each month and will feature people working within those roles in our local practices.
James Roach, Director of Primary and Local Care at NHS Hampshire and the Isle of Wight said: “Our GPs are working harder than ever to provide care for residents in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Since the pandemic, primary care has changed significantly, and GPs are working differently to meet this demand. They now offer online consultations, phone calls and face-to face appointments and the number of appointments being delivered by primary care continues to increase.
“Across Hampshire and Isle of Wight, we delivered almost 700,000 extra appointments in 2024 compared to the year before. That’s a huge increase year on year.”
“We also have a wide range of specialists working in general practice. Specialists can often offer more relevant advice and support for example, a dietician can offer ongoing nutritional help to manage a health condition or a physiotherapist can help with rehabilitation after an arm injury.”
NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight has been working closely with our GP practices to increase the availability of appointments. Two out of five appointments currently take place on the same day as booking which means that an additional 300,000 patients had an appointment on the same day in 2024 compared to 2023.
Tom Bertram, local GP and Clinical Director at NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight said “We understand that changes to how you can contact your GP haven’t been easy for everyone to adapt to and that there continue to be issues with some patients experiencing long waits on the phone. To improve this, we have been working with practices to upgrade phonelines to improve patient experience for example by offering a callback or by informing patients of their position in the queue.
“We have also supported the use of digital solutions such as video consultations and the use of online consultation tools such as e-Consult which some people find a more convenient way to contact their GP practice.
“In practices across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, we have a wealth of healthcare experience and knowledge from the different specialists in the teams and the campaign that we are launching is a great way to show how brilliant these individuals are in providing specialist care for patients.”
Further information about the campaign and the specialist roles working in our local practices can be found here: It Takes A Team