To ensure the consultation is written back to the patient's GP record, practices will need to change the way an appointment is booked using the PCN hub for remote consultation or cross organisation appointments.

Booking a remote consultation (from your own site)

1. In Appointment Book, select Find Slot, then Find Cross Organisational Slot

2. If you have already selected a locally registered patient, that patient will be pre-populated in the find patient details box, otherwise you must find and select the patient you wish to book for

3. Define the parameters of the search (Search from date, Time of day, Organisation, Advanced criteria, etc)

Please note: The selected organisation should be the one you’re booking into

4. As you are allowing access to the patient’s record to another organisation, you will be asked to confirm that the patient is aware of this and consents to this, as shown in the screenshot below:

Please note: The patient must consent to this, or the appointment will not be able to be made

5. If required, complete the Reason and / or Notes field(s) – including recording if ‘3^rd party consent taken’ – for when a friend / relative / carer books an appointment on behalf of the patient.

6. Click Book (or Book and Print) to complete the appointment booking.

View a Booked Remote Consultation

1. Access the consulting practice’s (the hub’s) Appointment Book
2. Find the patient via ‘Patient Appointments’ or by navigating manually to the booked date

You can hover the pointer over the patient’s details to display extended information for this booked appointment:

Registered Organisations: If the patient is registered at your surgery, you can cancel booked appointments as normal -  using right-click on the appointment details and Cancel Appointment or the Cancel Appt button on the ribbon in the Appointment Book screen (when viewing the consulting practice’s appointment book).
                Please note: Remote consultations are marked with the  icon

Consulting Organisations will need to follow the process below:

1. Access the Appointment Book
2. Find the patient via ‘Patient Appointments’ and ‘External Patients’, remembering to include details of the registered organisation for the patient
3. Within Patient Appointments / Future Appointments, you can right-click the appointment that is no longer required and select ‘Cancel Appointment’
4. Optionally, enter a reason for cancellation, and select ‘Cancel Appointment’

1. On the Find cross organisation appointments screen, in the organisation field, select the hub organisation.
2. On the Patient Trace screen, search for the patient to see if they are registered at the hub.
   
   • If the patient is registered, select and continue with the booking.
   • If the patient is not registered, click Book as an unregistered patient.
3. Complete the Find cross organisation appointments screen to find an appropriate appointment.
4. On the Book Slot screen, enter the patient's full name and use the Booking notes field to record patient demographic details, such as NHS number or date of birth to assist in registering the patient at the next step.
5. Click Book Appointment 
6. In the hub's Appointment Book, the unregistered patient is distinguished by just displaying their name.  This unregistered patient must now be traced into the hub to be registered.
7. On the Patient Trace screen, use the patient demographic details recorded in the Booking notes to search for the patient.
8. The patient should be found on the Shared Patient tab or PDS tab (if using a smartcard).
9. To complete the registration, select the patient and click Accept.
10. To update the Appointment Slot, right-click and select Register Patient. On the Patient Trace screen, select the correct patient and click OK.  

This is important.  What is the difference between an appointment for a remote consultation and a cross organisation appointment?

Have a look at the differences in the table below for the following scenario....

A patient registered at organisation A wants an appointment at organisation B (an out of hours hub, or an extended hours GP organisation). 

Booking an appointment for a remote consultation 

To book a remote consultation, you must select the patient's registered organisation. If the patient is not registered at your organisation you must change to the appropriate organisation. If the registered organisation is also the consulting organisation a remote consultation will not be performed, as this is a cross organisation appointment and will use the local care record.

1. Access Appointment Book.Click , point to Appointments, and then select Appointment Book. The Appointment Book is displayed.
2. On the ribbon, click Find Slot and then select Find Cross Organisation Slot.
3. On Find Cross-organisational Appointments screen, complete the following fields to find the correct patient:

   If you already have the correct local patient selected on the patient precis, the following fields will be populated. However, if the patient is registered at another organisation you must change this organisation field to the appropriate organisation.

   • In the Organisation field, select the patient's registered organisation. The default is your organisation/service. In the Patient field, click  and complete the Patient Trace screen to select the required patient.

     This search is only on patients who are actively registered at the selected organisation.

4. On the Find Cross-organisational Appointments screen, complete the Appointment Criteria pane to select an appointment in another organisation.

   If you want to quickly check if this patient has any future appointments or view past or cancelled appointments, click Appointment information. The Appointment information screen is a read-only screen.