Team Up Home Visiting Service frees up GP capacity, say 86% of primary care teams in new survey
The Derby and Derbyshire Team Up Home Visiting Service frees up GP capacity, according to 86% of people working in primary care who completed a recent survey.
187 primary care staff, including GPs, practice managers and advanced nurse practitioners, filled out the survey which also showed that 93% would recommend the service.
72% said the service enabled people who needed care at home to be seen earlier in the day and 59% said it provided more time to care for patients.
A similar survey was also sent to the Home Visiting Team workforce with 99% recommending the service and 93% recommending it as a place to work.
Angela Pownell, Operations Manager in the High Peak, said: “We look forward to receiving the results from our annual survey as it provides us with valuable information and insight into the views and opinions of our community members, colleagues across primary care, and our own team.
“We were delighted to see the results from the survey which evidenced our continued development and the excellent service that others feel we have provided.
“We are hopeful that we have helped to reduce the workload of our colleagues in primary care allowing us all to positively support our community. Furthermore, we are thankful for the opportunity that we have been given to collaborate and integrate with our system partners across health and social care.
“It is vitally important that we receive the feedback in order that we can continue to improve the quality of our service, develop in line with the identified needs of our community, and set out our aims and aspirations for the year ahead. We are grateful to everyone who responded to the survey and would like to thank everyone who took part.”
One respondent said: “This is a big load off our shoulders – knowing the visit will be done in a timely manner whilst I tackle the in-house workload, gives peace of mind rather than it feeling overwhelming or having to happen in unpaid time which can lead to frustration/burn out.”
40% also wanted more capacity including consistency in times of holidays and staff sickness and the capacity to increase more proactive rather than reactive care. The team are listening to this feedback and plan to draw up key actions. This is an annual survey, run for the last three years and the next will be in September 2025.