3. Access and availability
 
You must do your best to make sure that the whole team understands the
need to provide a polite, responsive and accessible service and to treat
patient information as confidential
GMC Good Medical Practice, paragraph 31.2

You need to establish a system for distinguishing and managing requests for
emergency, urgent, and routine appointments – this will normally be in the
hands of a receptionist or a nurse. You need to ensure that your receptionists
are trained to be able to operate the system correctly , and, if you are
employing staff, you must accept final responsibility for the working of the
appointment system.
As practice staff are often the first point of contact with a GP’s surgery, they
need to understand the importance of confidentiality in their dealings with
patients.

The excellent GP
- has opening hours which meet the needs of the patient population and are clearly stated
- monitors how the appointments system works
- has a system for receiving or returning phone calls from patients
- has an effective system to identify and respond to emergencies, and a system to deal with requests for same-day appointments
- has a clear policy which encourages continuity of care where patients wish
- ensures that practice staff understand and respect the need for confidentiality

The unacceptable GP

- has very restricted opening hours
- does not have adequate arrangements for patients to contact the practice by phone
- provides no opportunity for patients to talk to a doctor or a nurse on the phone
- pays no regard to the training and support of employed staff
- places little value on patient confidentiality.