A & E FAXBACK

GP Registrations Officer Post, notifications of admissions via A&E and use of the FAXBACK form

The GPRO post is an ELIC initiative designed to:

1> Keep you informed on emergency admissions for your patients

2> Operate the FAXBACK system between GPs and Consultants

3> Assist unregistered patients attending A&E to become registered with a local GP

Keeping you informed on emergency admissions

The Patient Admittance FAXBACK form: (P.A.FAXBACK form)

A new system is in operation between the Homerton and GP practices to keep practices informed of all patient admissions and to support increased joint clinical discussion for care planning. This is known as the A&E FAXBACK system. It operates in the following way:

  • Within an hour of an admission of one of your patients the GPRO at Homerton will fax a P.A FAXBACK form to your practice for the attention of the Duty Dr.
  • (If you want to know what to expect, please click here to see a copy of the form Homerton will send you: The P.A Faxback Homerton will send you.doc)
  • The Homerton's P.A FAXBACK form includes patient demographics, clinical information from Consultants with their contact details to help you enter into joint discussion over your patient’s care and emergency admission (and to better plan for their discharge).
  • A swift response is needed from the practice via FAX back to the Homerton within 3 hours of the arrival of the FAX.(If the admission is overnight or at a weekend, the Homerton will send a P.A FAXBACK form to the GP practice by 10:00am the next working day with a request for the practice to FAXBACK in response within 3 hours)
  • The P.A FAXBACK form is a “request for clinical information” from A&E to the patient's registered GP, so please ensure there is GP clinical involvement in discussion and response to this admission.
  • The practice needs to use one of the mail merge forms below to send back 'PAGES 2 and 3 Patient Clinical Summary information'(please download the relevant form for the GP IT system you use.)
  • So in total, you will FAXBACK 3 pages of information to the Homerton:
    • The P.A Faxback Form sent to you by the Homerton (page 1)
    • With a copy of the mail-merged Pages 2 and 3 document including the patient's medical history and other relevant clinical information.
    • Please FAX these 3 pages to 020 8510 5055 (the secure FAX line at Homerton).

To download the Page 3 FAXBACK form for completion and “FAXBACK” to Homerton

On receipt of your completed FAXBACK form the GPRO passes this information to the Consultant caring for your patient. The Consultant may also contact you for a joint conversation over the patient's care plan.

ELIC has collected the Duty Doctor and bypass telephone numbers for your practices and given these to the Homerton. This is to ensure swift conversation if the Consultant calls the practice to speak to the Duty Dr about the patient about to be admitted.

Please ensure your reception staff are fully aware of these new communications arrangements and are instructed to put the Consultant through to the Dr on Duty without delay when they call the practice.

The FAXBACK process is desgned to better supports Clinicians in care planning and gives GPs an opportunity to take part in discussions with the Consultant accordingly.

Supporting unregistered patients to register with a local practice close to their home:

  • A daily log is taken of patients arriving at A&E not registered or GP details not known.
  • The GPRO provides the patient with a choice of GP practices close to their home and information on what is needed to register successfully, together with appropriate times to complete their registration. (working to PCT Find-A-Doc policies)
  • For patients who do not know their GP, the service will (with consent from the patient) source the required information, confirm with the practice and update the EPR system. This will also help to ensure more discharge letters / A&E attendance notifications are sent out to the right practice!
  • In the absence of the GPRO, other front desk A&E staff have been given access to a list of GP practice Details for reference.

Other tasks the GPRO is carrying to improve communication and information flows:

  • Daily follow ups are made when new patients have been admitted onto wards. The patient’s GP details are checked, via visiting/contacting the ward, and after the surgery is informed of the admittance the PAS is updated with any changes. (This will support more discharge summaries arriving at the right practice when issued!)
  • Surgeries requesting discharge summaries now receive the required information promptly. (If you are missing a discharge summary – please contact the GPRO on 020 8510 5794)
  • When the GPRO has time they will begin to look into some of the backlog of returned discharge summaries as this is slower to resolve. The patient will be contacted directly to locate their correct GP details, contact will be made with the practice for confirmation and the EPR system modified with the new information.

How practices can make the most of these benefits:

There is huge scope for this post to improve patient care, communication and accuracy of the information flows between A&E and local practices – BUT The GPRO also needs information from your practice to make this work!

  • Please click here to download: 16.9.09 GP Registrations Officer Practice proforma.doc
  • If you want to fully benefit from the above, the GPRO needs your practice information proforma completed and returned asap.
  • Please also supply a copy of your patient leaflet (in PDF or WORD format)
  • And a map of your catchment area in which you consider patients for registration (in PDF or WORD format)
  • Please email all of these to: Zaynah.sharif@homerton.nhs.uk

We hope you all take up the benefits of the GPRO’s support – they are there to help you!