Investigating staff perceptions and experiences of telephone triage in general practice

Providing patients with improved access and excellent quality care is the aim of all NHS directives and the use of remote assessment is one way in which to develop practice in order to achieve this goal (Campbell et al, 2014). Telephone triage (TT) is a method employed by professionals to assess patients over the telephone to decide on the correct course of treatment for their ill-health, and this may involve self-care advice only, seeking a face-to-face GP appointment/attending a walk-in centre, or attending secondary care (independently or via an ambulance) (O'Cathain et al, 2004). Telephone assessment is not new and was primarily developed for use in out-of-hours (OOH) services across the world (Lake et al, 2017) and, in many cases, involves the use of clinical decision support software (CDSS) so that practitioners can standardise their triage and outcomes can be duplicated (North et al, 2014). Remote consultations using telephone/email and video assessments have increased exponentially in recent months following the impetus of managing care needs in general practice due to the COVID-19 outbreak (Marshall et al, 2020). Seemingly overnight, practices have changed the way their work is triaged and planned (Oldman, 2020).