5 minutes with a GP
Dr Puja Choudhury is General Practitioner at Weeping Cross Health Centre in NHS Stafford and Surrounds CCG.
Six months after Consultant Connect Telephone Advice & Guidance was made available to her practice, Dr Choudhury shares how she is using the Consultant Connect App to improve patient care and save herself time.
1. How does the Consultant Connect App help you in your day-to-day job?
- It has taken away the stress of trying to contact secondary care on a busy on-call day, especially if you have the patient in the room with you.
- I use it for Advice & Guidance and for referring patients to relevant specialties for admissions and to connect to hospital switchboards.
2. What do you think of the Consultant Connect App?
- The app is user friendly, easy to navigate and I have been able to connect to a consultant or specialist within a few rings. This has not only saved me time on a day-to-day basis but has helped me to manage patients safely, in a quick effective way.
- I find it very convenient during home visits too, as I can connect instantly at the touch of a button.
3. Why should your GP colleagues, who haven’t used the Consultant Connect service, try it out?
- Consultant Connect is a very convenient, time saving, handy app.
- The app provides quick access to a consultant within minutes.
- It is quick to download with simple navigation tools.
4. Can you share a recent example of how the Telephone Advice & Guidance service helped you and a patient?
- I recently used the service for advice on management of Hyponatremia in a Care Home patient with complex needs. The service helped me to provide an appropriate management plan for the patient and avoided unnecessary referral to secondary care. The interaction with the consultant was a valuable learning tool. I was able to reassure the patient’s relatives and successfully implement the changes needed to correct her sodium levels.
