Video group consultations take centre stage

After 36 years as a nurse, with 25 years working in general practice nursing, Maggi Bradley has a wealth of experience to share. In the last 5 years she has been the Sefton Training Hub nursing clinical lead, involved in improving student placements, as well as having a clinical role as a general practice nurse. Her work recently came to the attention of The One Show, where she was featured sharing her experiences of organising video group clinics at Aughton Surgery during the first COVID-19 lockdown and beyond.

When lockdown hit, the doors of the surgery shut overnight, and it was unclear what would happen next. Maggi said: ‘General practice nurses build up relationships with patients, and that's how we achieve health gains. I wondered, “How can I fill that gap? Is there something we can do in primary care?"’. Maggi quickly got involved in video training with Health Education England and by the end of April 2020 was already running the first group video consultations. The consultations cover anything Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF)-related, including annual diabetes and asthma reviews, cancer care reviews and postnatal reviews.