Online GP appointments and repeat prescriptions service launched | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

Online GP appointments and repeat prescriptions service launched

prescription3Health Minister Michelle O’Neill has officially launched online services for booking GP appointments and ordering repeat prescriptions from GP Practices.

The Minister visited Grove Wellbeing Centre in Belfast to see how accessing services online can help improve patient experience and reduce bureaucracy in primary care services.

The Health and Social Care Board has been working with NI Direct to expand public facing online services and make them more readily available to citizens of the north of Ireland.

Booking a GP appointment and ordering repeat prescriptions online are now available from 200 of 344 GP Practices in the north.

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30th-nov-2016-small-boxSpeaking at the official launch of the initiatives the Minister said, “I am delighted to be here today to hear and see how new services to allow people to book GP appointments and order repeat prescriptions online are helping to make life easier for patients – providing extra convenience and choice about how they interact with the surgery, whilst also helping to reduce paperwork for staff.

“As I set out in ‘Health and Wellbeing 2016 – Delivering Together’, modern information technology offers us tremendous potential to improve how we interact with people to improve services for them.

“It will not only be more convenient for patients but will also save GP practices time and resources in dealing with appointment booking and repeat prescriptions. Since April 2016, 93,910 GP appointments have been booked and 547,715 prescriptions have been ordered online.

“In October 2016, 14,125 GP practice appointments were booked online – an increase of almost 1,900 from August 2016. In October 2016, 79,981 repeat prescriptions were ordered online – which is slightly over 17% of the total prescriptions issued by GPs each month.

“It is clear these services are needed and well used already, so this expansion is particularly welcome. Since my appointment as Health Minister I have continually urged the health service to seek out what works well and replicate it where possible – this is a perfect example and I would encourage people to actively use the facility where possible.”

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Through nidirect: www.nidirect.gov.uk/gp – people can search for their GP practice, identify if it provides online booking and / or a repeat prescription service and then click through to a Patient Access portal and securely logon to use the service. Patients need to register to use the Patient Access Service through their GP Practice.

The Minister acknowledged and commended the work of all those involved in the development of the services. She continued, “These services are just part of a wider approach to making better use of technology which will impact positively on patients and service users.

“This new way of doing things, which is underpinned by the ehealth and care strategy, is a key element of my vision for the future of our health and social care services. This is improvement and modernisation in action.”

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Posted by on Jan 4 2017. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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