Patients want to be able to access care when they need it and we understand that.

Last year (April 2025 to March 2026) we worked with other local GP practices in St Johns Wood & Maida Vale Primary Care Network (PCN) to create a plan that improved access for our local patients to GP practice services.

The plan was submitted to the local ICB (Integrated Care Board) and it was approved in June 2025. Our practice/s then worked through the year on implementing that plan to improve access.  

Read or download the full 25/26 access improvement plan here

In summary we agreed to:

• Answer 90% of calls answered within 10 minutes by March 2026
• 90% of e-consultations (Patchs) responded to by next working day by January 2026
• 2% of patient list flagged for continuity of care by December 2025 
• 10% increase in NHS App registrations by March 2026 
• One annual patient survey and one engagement events
• Throughout 2025/26 monthly clinical time audits and appointment mapping reviews June 2025 – Jan 2026 

Our approach to the agreed actions always considered our patient demographic, challenges and prevalence’s.

How did we do?

Collectively our PCN practices answered 98 % calls within 10 minutes

Over 90% of e-consultations (Patchs) were responded to by the next working day

Our PCN identified 1310 patients as benefitting from continuity of care (over 2%); practices then added an alert to this in the patient’s medical record. To ensure that this approach to continuity was effective an audit was carried out in Jan 2026 to review whether this cohort of patients were in fact receiving continuity of care. The PCN organised a learning event to discuss the audit, outcomes and learning, the event was attended by all practices. 

There are six GP practices in SJWMV PCN and all practices saw a significant improvement in the number of patients that registered for the NHS app.

SJWMV PCN held two patient engagement events to engage with patients and improve access to services. On 23/10/25 practices held an event in collaboration with the elderly Jewish focus group. The focus group was well attended and highlighted areas to improve engagement. On 04/02/2026 our network practices held an event ‘Community Digital Health Dinner’ at The Exchange in W9. The event well attended by a range by patients from a range of backgrounds, ethnicities and ages. Community maternity champions attended along with a community lead from Everyone Active. There was a particular focus on digital tools with patients engaging in honest and open conversations on their experiences.

The PCN received 1510 responses to the patient engagement survey; this represents 3.1% of the population. While the PCN did not achieve the original target of 4% the responses received provided a valuable insight into patient’s views on access and this helps us shape our approach in 26/27.

The PCN carried out monthly audits over a seven month period with the focus being on the appropriate use of GP appointments. The PCN organised a learning event where the outcome of the audit was reviewed collectively by PCN practices and learning.  

The access approach in 26/27:

Our practice and PCN were able to draw useful insights from the work completed in 25/26 and we want to build on it.

1. We will continue to answer a minimum of 90% telephone calls within 10 minutes
2. We will carefully monitor appointments made available to our NHS111 colleagues and ensure there is adequate availability using our practice list size as a guide.
3. We will provide staff (NHS ambassadors) to help patients download and use the NHS app. To align with this we will continue to increase the number of patients at our practice registered with the NHS app.
4. Practices within the network with identify more patients that would benefit from continuity of care (minimum 3% of registered list size). We will also carry out an audit on a sample of this cohort of patients (20%) to see if the continuity approach above if effective.
5. We will continue to be transparent with our patients on the work we plan to do on access.
6. In 26/27 we will run a patient survey and aim to achieve the target of 4%. Collectively our practices will review the challenges that prevented reaching the return rate of 4% and plan to overcome them. We know that cost pressures on practices on sending SMS messages impacted return rate and so we will explore alternative approaches to reaching our patients and hearing their views. We plan to analyse why our network did not reach a 4% return rate and careful plan our campaign to ensure we hear from as many patients as possible, a minimum of 4%.
7. Our survey result informed us that while 55% of patients feel confident using digital tools many still prefer arranging health care on the telephone. We will plan a survey that addresses this point and builds on improving access locally.
8. Our PCN will identify under-represented cohorts in the locality and with the assistance of a clinical and non-clinical champion hold four patient engagement events to improve access.