Choose and Book slot availability improves

Problems with slot availability on Choose and Book are beginning to fall, with availability issues affecting between 12% and 13% of patients, compared with 20% three months ago, according to the e-booking team.

Dr Stephen Miller, national medical director for Choose and Book, said slot availability issues have fallen over recent weeks but work still needs to be done to improve the experience for patients and all those involved in the booking process.

He told EHI Primary Care: “It still means there are a significant number of people who are not going to get an appointment – which isn’t good enough.”

Dr Miller said the Choose and Book team was working closely with those managing the 18 week wait programme at the Department of Health to try and resolve issues at individual trusts. One of the main reasons for slot availability problems has been trusts limiting slots in order to meet their 18 week referral to treatment time targets.

He added: “18 weeks and Choose and Book can be perceived as being in opposition to each other, but a lot of trusts are doing well on 18 weeks and are still able to achieve good slot availability.”

The team sought to maintain Choose and Book’s profile to promote its use, he said. “For some people Choose and Book is now business as usual, which is great, but at the moment it’s business as usual at too low a level.”

Dr Miller said the number of referrals going through the system was increasing, but since overall referral numbers were also growing, the e-booking usage rates remain at around 50%.

Figures published this week show that nationally GP referrals grew by 12.6% for the second quarter of this year in comparison to the same time last year. This follows from a 16% increase in referrals in quarter one of this financial year.

Dr Miller said Choose and Book was also being used for an increasing number of other referrals not reflected in the 50% figure, which only covers first outpatient appointments. He said the e-booking system was being used for an extra 20% of activity, covering referrals to clinical assessment services, GPs with a Special Interest, diagnostic services and so on.

He added: “It’s quite reassuring because our long term goal is to make Choose and Book the everyday method of referral from anywhere to anywhere.”

Dr Miller said there had been a “steady allbeit slow rise” in use of Choose and Book since the ending of the directed enhenced service (DES) for using Choose and Book and said most strategic health authorities were continuing to provide incentives for GP practices to use the system.

Improvements in the pipeline include searching by SNOMED terms and greater use of Choose and Book for two week wait cancer referrals.

Dr Miller added: “We know that 10% to 15% of referrals are for suspected cancer but less than 2% are referred through Choose and Book. A lot of referrers want to go to one place to do all their referrals so we are working on putting on as many services as possible and making sure they are clearly labeled.”

The Choose and Book team was also encouraging trusts to use the software’s ‘named physician’ functionality, after much criticism from GPs that hopsitals have set up the system so they cannot refer to named consultants, he said.

“We want trusts to use it but we also want to make sure that GPs don’t misuse it by using it for all referrals rather than those which are appropriate,” he added.