Easing pressure on general practice one inbox at a time
22 November 2023
Long after the last patient has been seen, many general practitioners (GPs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) remain at their desks trying to manage their mounting clinical inbox tasks. A kete of resources is now available to guide general practices to manage these inboxes differently. This helps clinicians to leave on time, respond to tasks in a timely way and have more time to care for patients.
The kete is accessed via HealthPathways.
The kete was developed locally in response to the results of a capacity and demand survey carried out by CCN’s Primary Care Taskforce in June, which highlighted the critical need to minimise unnecessary administration within general practice.
The kete guides practices through the process of employing a new team member or involving an existing one to pre-sort and streamline GP/NP clinical inbox tasks.
Kete resources include:
- Background information about the benefits, managing medico-legal risks and workforce options.
- Templates and policies adaptable to the individual needs of each practice.
- Case studies, which include videos of practice team members talking about how they manage their inboxes differently.
- A video featuring a panel of Canterbury Waitaha clinicians discussing inbox management.
Below are comments from GPs whose practices have adopted new approaches to inbox management:
“The response from the team has been overwhelmingly positive. Our Clinical Assistant who manages the inboxes is the favourite person in the practice. She saves me 40-50% of my time on my inbox…. The biggest pay off is the GPs don’t dread their inboxes like they used to, so it’s not an insurmountable task. From a wellbeing point of view, it’s had a big impact.”
Dr Lizzie Loudon, St Martins Medical Centre
Watch Lizzie talk about the benefits (YouTube)
“It has made my inbox less daunting. Things are packaged up and ready and I can scan and know what information is there, instead of blank spaces – where I don’t know what service the letter is from and what it is about. Definitely made an easy to process inbox. Actions have already been taken and follow ups booked. It also means we’re using the skills of our team members more fully.”
Dr Amanda Torkington, Medical Corner Doctors
Watch Amanda talk about their journey with inbox management (YouTube)
Work to reduce the administration at source and explore the use of digital assistants to assist with routine tasks is also underway to further reduce the general practice administration workload.
Interested in learning more?
General practices can contact their Primary Health Organisation (PHO) to:
- Connect with a general practitioner, practice nurse or Practice Manager colleague to learn about their experiences implementing inbox management changes.
- Obtain information and support to progress these changes.