TELESAFE

CPMS code:  54386

Lead Network: West of England

Study Summary

An important aspect of any healthcare consultation, whatever the mode, is ‘safety-netting’ – providing patients with clear advice about what to look out for and when to seek further medical help if their condition changes or does not improve. It is arguable that providing safety-netting advice is particularly important in telephone consultations where the healthcare professional is unable to see the patient. It is therefore important for patient safety to understand how, and how often healthcare professionals provide this safety netting advice in telephone consultations, which have become more common since the covid-19 pandemic. What is the aim of the project? To understand how GPs and other healthcare professionals in primary care provide safety netting advice in telephone consultations and to learn how patients respond to this. In addition to collect a dataset of recordings of telephone consultations in primary care to develop an archive for future use by researchers. What are we doing? Many GP practices routinely record all telephone communications to and from their practice, including consultations. A research team at the University of Bristol is planning to invite healthcare professionals from practices and their patients who have had a recent telephone consultation to give consent for a copy of their recorded consultation to be transferred to the research team. There, it will be anonymised and after it has been used for this piece of research it will be deposited in a research archive so that it can be made accessible to other researchers in the future for other research questions and for the teaching and training of health professionals. We will analyse these consultations to understand how and in what circumstances GPs provided safety netting advice, whether this has an impact on subsequent consultations and use these findings to make recommendations for safer practice. 

The search files hosted on this website are based on the inclusion/exclusion criteria as described in the study protocol and have been built and tested with input from our GP Champion teams. Every effort is made to keep the search files  hosted here maintained and up-to-date. 

However, it is the responsibility of the Principal Investigator to review the search and make any practice specific amendments as deemed necessary*. 

Please DO NOT mail out to patients until you have confirmation and sign off ('green light') from the study team.

*You should advise the study team of any amendments you make to the search.

Disclaimer:

Please note the resources provided are designed to assist with the identification of potentially suitable patients and to appropriately code these patients if required.

These resources have been developed based on the criteria provided by the relevant study team and whilst every effort has been made to make them universally implementable they rely on read codes and the data stored in the individual practice's clinical system. These resources are intended to assist with identification but should be used in conjunction with clinical oversight and a clear understanding of the study parameters.

While we endeavor to keep the information, tools and resources provided up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the tools provided for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of the tools provided.