Exclusive Improvements to the online Register with a GP surgery service are still ongoing even as practices near the October 31 deadline for mandatory adoption, NHS England has said.
A key change is integrating the service directly with GP clinical systems, which means the input of patient data becomes automated.
And the data being collected from patents is continually being tweaked so it’s more useful and can feed into QOF.
The free service that aims to simplify and standardise registrations for practices was launched two years ago.
After piloting and then reaching over 40% adoption across primary care, it was mandated for practices under this year’s GP contract.
Surgeries will be expected to use the online service for prospective patients by 31 October.
Along with the digital service, a new paper registration form (PRF1) mirroring the online tool is available here for patients that don’t have online access. The old GMS1 form will be phased out and unavailable to order after October 31.
The digital registration service means an individual trying to register with a GP no longer has to visit the practice in person to collect forms and can complete registration at any time to suit them. The service is also available in the NHS App.
The process and form to capture details from patients is a national one, says NHS England, so the patient experience of registering is the same wherever they live. It also means practices can be reassured the information they receive is uniform and in a quality format, saving them time when reviewing it.
NHS England has previously said the tool can save practice staff up to 15 minutes per registration by helping to reduce paperwork and admin time.
With almost 5,000 GP practices already offering the service, there is now in a final push to get remaining surgeries to sign up.
Grant Allen, lead product manager at NHS England, said the team is updating the service all the time to make it more user friendly, with changes being driven by practice and patient needs.
He told Management in Practice: ‘We know the process still involves some element of having to input data manually by practices but we are working with clinical system suppliers to integrate with their service. We hope to begin testing with some practices early in the New Year.’
Mr Allen said changes to patient questions are continuously being made to make the data more useful for practices.
‘We recently added in a question about TB screening, which we identified as information practices wanted,’ he said.
‘We also tweaked one of our questions around smoking (it now asks patients, “how many do you smoke a day?”) to make it more specific, so the data is easier to transfer into clinical systems.’
In addition, following requests from practices, questions about alcohol have been expanded, so it can feed directly into QOF data.
A further update that went live last month has aimed to improve the journey for students and better support university practices, Mr Allen explained.
‘We want to ensure practices are getting all the information they need when a student tries to register including that the person is actually a student and they are in their catchment area, so registration is more likely to be successful. We worked with Student Health Association representatives on this.’
Longer-term, the service will be focusing on inclusivity, doing more work to understand how to support groups of people from different ethnic backgrounds, the LGBTQ community and those without a fixed address.
The service already complies with accessibility standards aligned to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 level AA, so it doesn’t exclude individuals with vision, hearing, mobility, or thinking and understanding impairments.
The service will continue to adapt even after the October deadline for signing, Mr Allen said.
‘We’re very conscious of the mandate and we are listening to users’ concerns about how we make sure the service is accessible for all GP practices up until the end of October. But it will continue to evolve and improve after that date.
‘And we don’t just make changes based on what we think practices want. We engage with patients, practices, admin staff and organisations like the Institute of General Practice Management to make sure that what we’re planning to deliver is actually going to benefit all groups.
‘So we will keep prioritising and implementing changes where we have an identified national practice need, while also ensuring patients aren’t expected to provide reams and reams of data unnecessarily. It has to be an easy experience for them.’
Meanwhile, Ian Jones, national product implementation lead at NHS England, also says the team has gone ‘to huge lengths to ensure the enrolment process for practices is easy’.
‘It takes five to 10 minutes to sign up’, he said. ‘Practices can do it themselves using a tool called NHS Profile Manager. Or they can get in touch with us and we can enrol on their behalf.’
What about practices that don’t sign up by the end of October?
‘Currently, it’s about supporting and encouraging practices to use the service,’ said Mr Jones. ‘That’s our focus.’
Practices can sign up to the Register with a GP surgery service here.
