In the evenings and at weekends, the GP post in Alkmaar often has to deal with people who have complaints who can easily wait until their own GP is available. As a result, the pressure on the employees is increasing. †We notice that people sometimes demand a place when it is not really necessary.” That’s why the GP post has ‘decision tree’ on the website launched, with which patients can check how urgent their care needs are.
From 1 January of this year to 18 May, more than 25,000 people contacted the general practitioner, says Inge van Hulst, manager of the general practitioner Alkmaar. “In almost half of those cases, 47 percent, people do not need to contact the GP.”
Faster injuries?
This is about 20 percent more than last year. Van Hulst thinks that this increase is a combination of several factors: “Now that there are no more corona measures, many more people are going out and exercising again. As a result, they are more likely to incur injuries for which they call the general practitioner. That could be one of the explanations.” may be, but it remains a bit of speculation.”
Non-urgent notifications:
In the past year in particular, the GP post has seen a ‘significant increase’ in the number of non-urgent reports. By non-urgent is meant that people either receive self-care advice and therefore do not have to go to the GP at all − or can ask their own GP with their question on a weekday.
Van Hulst also notices that people are less likely to be satisfied with a rejection. “When you call the GP, you get a care worker with triage training on the phone. He estimates on the basis of various questions whether someone should come to the GP or not. We notice that people sometimes demand a place like this. not necessary.”
“We sometimes have someone come over because that person is very worried”
And that is difficult, she says. “People can be very assertive. The GP post is intended for acute requests for help and it is of course not always nice to hear that you do not belong to that target group,” says Van Hulst. “We sometimes have someone come by if it is not really necessary, because that person is extremely worried whether the triagist himself has a gut feeling. At the same time, the pressure on our staff is increasing enormously and we have to make sure that it remains manageable for them. “
Decision tree as a ‘prudent’ estimate
She therefore hopes that people will first check the decision tree on the website to check whether they need immediate care. “This is a system with which 70 percent of the GP posts already work and it is very accurate,” says Van Hulst. It is possible that someone on the website is advised to call the GP post, but that after a conversation with the triagist it appears that it is not necessary to come by.
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This is because the decision tree is ‘on the conservative side of the spectrum’. “In case of doubt, we still want to have a telephone conversation, because the triagist can ask further questions,” says Van Hulst. “The employee can then consider very carefully whether acute care is needed.”
The GP post hopes that the decision tree will help people to use the GP post as much as possible when necessary. “Because there is such an increase in telephone calls, we deploy an extra GP every weekend. This is someone who usually also has his own practice, so that really creates extra work pressure. We are happy if we can just do what we do again.” are intended.”
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