Older people and ‘telephone first’ access to general practice.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The experience and perceptions of older people, their carers and their general practice teams in using a ‘telephone first’ approach for access to appointments: a qualitative study
IRAS ID
270160
Contact name
H Atherton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Warwick
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
‘Telephone first’ is a way for patients to make an appointment with a doctor at their surgery. When you telephone the surgery, the receptionist gets a doctor to call you back that day and the doctor then either deals with your problem over the telephone or asks you to come in. At the moment not many people have researched the effect it might have on patients, in particular older people, who are the group of adults who are most likely to need to make an appointment with a doctor. 1.We will find eight general practices using ‘telephone first.’ 2.We will find patients and/or their carers in these general practices who are aged 65 or older. 3.We will ask them about using ‘telephone first.’ 4.We will include a wide range of older people, for example, patients with lots of health problems, patients with disabilities and patients with full time carers. 5.We will talk to staff in these general practices about ‘telephone first.’ Once we have done this we will put together our findings. This information can then be used to make sure 'telephone first' is working as well as possible for older people.
REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0950
Date of REC Opinion
7 Jul 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion