GP case study: Haematology

Dr Anuradha Giri outlines her experience of using rapid Telephone Advice & Guidance to discuss patient cases with consultants at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

“It is a good service to avail especially when one is not sure and also for more complex patients” Dr Giri

Dr Giri works at Crown House Surgery in the NHS Bassetlaw CCG area. She has been a GP since 2006 and has access to Telephone Advice & Guidance. The service in this area, which is provided by Consultant Connect, was commissioned by NHS Doncaster CCG in August 2017. Prior to Telephone Advice & Guidance being introduced to clinicians in Doncaster and Bassetlaw, Dr Giri obtained Advice & Guidance by:

“ringing the on-call team or I would have to admit the patient.“

Telephone Advice & Guidance provides a useful and efficient alternative. Dr Giri comments that she likes using the service as:

“I am able to contact the consultant in the particular specialty I need and I can get better quality advice.”

She feels very positively about the benefits of Telephone Advice & Guidance and advises her primary care colleagues that:

“It is a good service to avail especially when one is not sure and also for more complex patients.”

Dr Giri has described the following example as an illustration of when she has used Telephone Advice & Guidance to provide a high standard of patient care:

“I was the on-call doctor on that day and received some abnormal blood results for one of my patients who had leukemia and was under the care of a haematologist. The patient was undergoing chemotherapy, but the blood results showed a sudden drop in hemoglobin and platelets. I used Telephone Advice & Guidance to contact Haematology and luckily was able to speak to the named consultant for the patient. As she knew the patient already and was able to see the results online, she immediately took over her care and her team contacted the patient and managed everything from there. Had I not used the Telephone Advice & Guidance service I would have had to admit the patient through the Emergency Care Unit (EMU) or Acute Medical Unit (MAU) which would have meant an increased wait for the patient and also going through inappropriate services.”

How Telephone Advice & Guidance helped:

“The patient was able to see the Haematology team directly and had timely and appropriate management.” This was a better result for the patient as their care was streamlined.

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