Steve Brine MP has welcomed the Government's Primary Care Recovery Plan, during a statement by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the House of Commons.
The Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee questioned the timing of the investment asking : "How quickly can the telephone, the investment in that 8am scramble part of the policy, make a difference to those practices that don't have it.
And I notice he said that they we're already negotiating with the pharmaceutical service negotiating committee. So, how quickly can that very, very welcome new investment gets to the frontline of community pharmacy?"
Stephen Barclay MP responded : "I hope he will take comfort from the fact that around half of GP practises already have cloud telephony. Which is why we're so confident that it is the right approach, it is one that is already working and we're seeing in the response from patients the positive feedback that online booking, call back systems are things that patients themselves usually value, but also that allows primary care to better triage calls to the specialists, and therefore use the additional roles that we recruited in a more optimum way.
So, it will be rolled out this year, but it is already up and running and we can see that it's working."
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