The Children & Young People’s Health Partnership (CYPHP) initiated In-reach clinics in August 2017 with the aim to improve access to children’s healthcare by integrating primary and secondary care services. The In-reach clinics are based in local GP surgeries, where paediatricians and GPs work closely together to deliver comprehensive care to children as close to home as possible. This joint working also enables shared education and training to help all professionals improve their skills and abilities.
Is it working and what do clinicians think?
GPs who co-facilitate In-reach sessions are given CPD accreditation. And as part of the accreditation process, GPs are asked to provide feedback after each In-reach clinic. Our recent summary of feedback for the period of January 2018 – March 2018 positively showed that:
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84% of GPs said that the clinics benefited patients
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89% said that the clinic was helpful for their learning.
More specifically, GPs said that they benefited from the clinics by:
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“Observing consulting styles with children, [and] confirming findings.
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”Having…“improved my knowledge of alternative treatment options to common presentations.”
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“It's good to see how a specialist would approach the issue differently with different thresholds for intervention and concern.”
GPs also mentioned benefits for their patients. Some included:
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“The availability of specialist services and clinics in the area, both hospital and community for specific conditions.”
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“Shorter wait time and less frightening to children as seen in local surgery.”
GP feedback has also given us recommendations to improve the service further. This has included working on refining our processes so that, where possible, all clinics will be operating at full capacity.
Introducing our In-reach consultants
Chloe Macauley– General Paediatric consultant, Evelina London
Sharon Pimenta – General Paediatric consultant, Evelina London
Sharon Roberts – General Paediatric consultant, Evelina London
Diana Stan – General Paediatric consultant, King's College Hospital
Mike Wacks – General Paediatric consultant, King's College Hospital
Bianca Tiesman – General Paediatric consultant, Evelina London
“I love doing clinics. Get to meet GPs, discuss cases and truly work jointly with patients. We both learn from each other’s expertise, and can provide better care as a result. Clinics work best when there is the opportunity for a discussion after clinic so we can talk about the patients seen, and discuss other cases – learning is always best when case-based!” Chloe Macauley
"Thought-provoking." Sharon Roberts