Information for General Practice
If you are employed by a practice in Tower Hamlets, you will find all the information about the Extended Access service (Hub).
The locality hubs provide GP and Nurses appointments that practices can book for urgent or routine primary care services. Appointments are also booked by the Tower Hamlets GP Out of Hour’s (OOH) services. Patients would normally be asked to see one of their clinicians (Royal London Hospital). This means that all Tower hamlets GP practices and the Out of Hour’s service can book an appointment for their patient at the hubs.
Appointments for weekdays are booked up to 48hours in advance and weekends up to 7 days in advance with the exception to busier hubs where appointments are often embargoed for up 2- 4days. GP appointments are 12 minutes whilst the Nurse appointments are 15mins each. There are 6 appointments for each weekday sessions per clinician with exception to Hub evening sessions (Mon, Wed, Thu and Fri 6:30pm – 10.00pm). There are 16 GP appointments offered at Hub evening sessions. On Saturdays, we offer 35 GP appointments per each hub and on Sundays we offer 36 GP appointments at East One Health Hub only (between 10.00am - 6:00pm).
Please note patient will NOT be seen if they walk-in to the Hubs. Patients should be booked via either their registered GP practice or the Tower Hamlets Out of Hours (OOH) service.
Please be advised that all 4 Hubs operate using the same EMIS (EMIS Web Community Version). Therefore, the hub clinicians will have access to Tower Hamlets GP practice registered patient medical notes. When booking an appointment, it is essential that you include patient NHS numbers and as much information as possible to indicate why the patient is attending the appointment.
Discharge Summary: Once patient has been seen in the hub, a discharge summary is sent to the registered GP practice workflow via DTS. The discharge summary includes consultation notes and recommendation/follow up notes (if any) from the hub clinicians. With the discharge summary, registered GP practice may receive copy of 'document' Pathology Request form, copy of 2 Weeks Wait Referral, copy of diagnostic referral templates and any referral recommendation letter to the patient registered GP.
Pathology Requests - The rationale of the Hubs is to be able to provide medical care as it would be offered in the patient’s own registered practice, rather than just urgent care. HOWEVER, Tquest online/offline requesting is not yet fully functional. This means that currently only pathology tests that are really important will be requested by the Hub clinicians using the document ‘template’ printout test request. Printed copy of the document pathology request template will be given to patients to get their blood/urine test done at their own convenience and a copy of the document template will be sent to registered practice with the discharge summary.
For less urgent or more extensive investigations the hub clinician will advise patient to organize via the patient own registered practice and this will be highlighted in the EMIS record (Discharge Summary).
At the Hubs we cannot request the following investigations MRI/ECHO/24 hour tape/Endoscopy/Colonoscopy/Sigmoidoscopy.
Patients arriving late: Please note the 10 minutes rule applies in the hubs. If patient arrives more than 10 minutes late for their appointment they will be asked to re book their appointment for another time.
The locality hubs provide GP and Nurses appointments that practices can book for urgent or routine primary care services. Appointments are also booked by the Tower Hamlets GP Out of Hour’s (OOH) services. Patients would normally be asked to see one of their clinicians (Royal London Hospital). This means that all Tower hamlets GP practices and the Out of Hour’s service can book an appointment for their patient at the hubs.
Appointments for weekdays are booked up to 48hours in advance and weekends up to 7 days in advance with the exception to busier hubs where appointments are often embargoed for up 2- 4days. GP appointments are 12 minutes whilst the Nurse appointments are 15mins each. There are 6 appointments for each weekday sessions per clinician with exception to Hub evening sessions (Mon, Wed, Thu and Fri 6:30pm – 10.00pm). There are 16 GP appointments offered at Hub evening sessions. On Saturdays, we offer 35 GP appointments per each hub and on Sundays we offer 36 GP appointments at East One Health Hub only (between 10.00am - 6:00pm).
Please note patient will NOT be seen if they walk-in to the Hubs. Patients should be booked via either their registered GP practice or the Tower Hamlets Out of Hours (OOH) service.
Please be advised that all 4 Hubs operate using the same EMIS (EMIS Web Community Version). Therefore, the hub clinicians will have access to Tower Hamlets GP practice registered patient medical notes. When booking an appointment, it is essential that you include patient NHS numbers and as much information as possible to indicate why the patient is attending the appointment.
Discharge Summary: Once patient has been seen in the hub, a discharge summary is sent to the registered GP practice workflow via DTS. The discharge summary includes consultation notes and recommendation/follow up notes (if any) from the hub clinicians. With the discharge summary, registered GP practice may receive copy of 'document' Pathology Request form, copy of 2 Weeks Wait Referral, copy of diagnostic referral templates and any referral recommendation letter to the patient registered GP.
Pathology Requests - The rationale of the Hubs is to be able to provide medical care as it would be offered in the patient’s own registered practice, rather than just urgent care. HOWEVER, Tquest online/offline requesting is not yet fully functional. This means that currently only pathology tests that are really important will be requested by the Hub clinicians using the document ‘template’ printout test request. Printed copy of the document pathology request template will be given to patients to get their blood/urine test done at their own convenience and a copy of the document template will be sent to registered practice with the discharge summary.
For less urgent or more extensive investigations the hub clinician will advise patient to organize via the patient own registered practice and this will be highlighted in the EMIS record (Discharge Summary).
At the Hubs we cannot request the following investigations MRI/ECHO/24 hour tape/Endoscopy/Colonoscopy/Sigmoidoscopy.
Patients arriving late: Please note the 10 minutes rule applies in the hubs. If patient arrives more than 10 minutes late for their appointment they will be asked to re book their appointment for another time.
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