GP Connect Appointments - Consultation Write Back

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Create Organisation Group in Hub
• Create Appointment Book in Hub
• Booking a GP Connect Appointment
• EMIS Hub booked Patient
• Cancelling GP Connect Appointments
• Inactive Patients
• Video

Use GP Connect to book hub appointments from a GP Practice into an EMIS Hub.  This is an alternative to using Cross Organisation Appointments booking via a Data Sharing Agreement.

The huge advantage to using this method is hubs that have activated the Consultation Write Back Enterprise Agreement will not have to Trace patients into the hub.

This article explains what organisations must do to enable GP Connect Appointments between GP Practices and an EMIS Hub.

Create Organisation Group in Hub

Firstly, GP Connect must be enabled in all instances of EMIS that wish to use GP Connect Appointments.  In Emis navigate to Configuration > Organisation Configuration, select Organisation in the left bottom menu.  Select your organisation and click on Edit. In the menu select GP Connect Configuration.  Check GP Connect, Foundation and Appointments:

GP Connect must be enabled on the NHS Spine for your organisation National Code.  Check with EMIS.

In the EMIS Hub create an Organisation Group that will contain the EMIS Hub and all the GP Practices within the PCN.  Go to Configuration > Organisation Configuration, select Organisation Groups in the left bottom menu.  Click on Add > Add Organisation.  Using the National Codes to search, add the PCN hub and all Sharing GP Practices:

The Organisation Group will automatically appear in each GP Practice.  Each GP Practice must Subscribe to this Organisation Group:

When a GP Practice has subscribed to the Organisation Group the icon will change to Unsubscribe Organisation Group:

Create Appointment Book in Hub

In the Hub create an appointment book.  Make sure each appointment book created is GPConnect Bookable:

The GP Connect bookable buttons will be greyed out until a Session Holder is added.  The Session Holder must have one of the following Job Categories in their EMIS account in the table below. Hubs could create a "dummy practitioner" (using one of the Job Categories below) to use as a session holder for all GP Connect Appointment Sessions.

Filters can also be applied to Appointment Books to limit which organisation groups can see the appointment book.  For example Hubs may create an appointment book for 111 and another for Enhanced Access:

If you do not want any other organisations to see slots within an Appointment Session make sure the Number of slots in the filter matches the number of slots within the Appointment Session.

When creating Appointment Books in the PCN Hub use the Session Name and Slot Types to help inform GP Practice booking staff to book into the correct Appointment Books.  

These are displayed under Session details in Find GP Connect Appointments.   In the diagrams below the Session Name is highlighted red and the Slot Type highlighted blue.

Booking a GP Connect Appointment

In the GP Practice, booking staff must be logged on with a Smartcard with the appropriate role to use GP Connect Appointments.   In Appointment Book click on Find Slot > Find GP Connect Appointments:

Select the correct Organisation group and click on Search appointments.  A List of GP Connect Bookable Appointments in the hub will appear. Select an appropriate slot and click on Book appointment:

Enter a Description for the booking and, if required, a Comment.  Click on Book

EMIS Hub booked Patient

In the clinical hub the patient is booked in as a registered patient.  There is no requirement to Trace the patient in from the Spine:

A patient booked using GP Connect will have a purple patient précis:

After a Consultation has been completed for the patient in the Hub, their Consultation details (notes, clinical codes, Electronic Prescriptions, clinical document , etc.) will be automatically sent back to the patients GP Practice via the Consultation Write Back Enterprise Agreement:

The GP Practice will see the Consultation as an Enterprise consultation with a Blue/Green/Yellow symbol next to it:

Cancelling GP Connect Appointments

If the patient would like to cancel their appointment – you will need to search ‘Patient Appointments’ manually.  In the Appointment Book select Patient Appointments – GP Connect Patient Appointments:

Enter the patient name, select the Organisation group and, if required, the Organisation . Click on Search Appointments. Any Future Appointments will be listed.  To Cancel an appointment, right click on the appointment and select Cancel Appointment:

You will be prompted for a reason for the cancellation:

A confirmation of the cancelled appointment will be displayed:

You can test GP Connect Appointments outside of a Clinical System here - https://appointmentchecker.gpconnect.nhs.uk/ (will need an nhs.net account)

Inactive Patients

After 28 days, patients booked into a Clinical Services hub via GP Connect will become Inactive.  If this patient is booked into the hub again via GP Connect after 28 days they will stay Inactive - however Consultations and Consultation Write Back will still work.  But there may be other reasons a hub will wish to make this patient Active again.  To do this, hub staff will have to Re-Register the patient again in Registration:

EMISNow Knowledge Base

Video

Additional Resources

How GP Connect Appointments Integrate with the NHS Spine