Horizon Scotland tenant helps supermarket doctor scheme

A groundbreaking scheme to widen access to GPs is using technology from a Horizon Scotland company for booking appointments.

The scheme, developed in Rochdale, Lancashire. Instead of operating from a traditional surgery, is located in the local Sainsbury’s store at Heaton Park in Manchester, in a fully-equipped consultation room.

Called ‘Doctors In Store’, the scheme will allow patients to book appointments in the evenings and on Saturdays. The GPs working in the store will be from local surgeries, and will provide the service in addition to their existing practices.

Patients will be able to book appointments through their own GP practice. Each of the practices taking part will have online access to a common booking list. They will look on the screen for a free slot, and reserve it. They can also alter existing bookings, but only for their own patients.

The practice nurse based at Sainsbury’s will check the screen each day and print out the booking list for the GP on call that evening.

The online booking system for the scheme has been put in place by the Horizon Scotland company, e-availability. The company has been developed by David Powell, a software and database specialist.

‘The Rochdale scheme is a really groundbreaking one,’ he says. ‘It’s getting strong support from the local health trust, who see how it can improve access to healthcare, and from Sainsbury’s themselves.

‘The health trust contacted us via our website, www.e-availability.com, and their head of IT asked us to develop the specialist booking system, based on our online appointments module.

‘With the speed at which the project has been moving, the timescale was tight, but everybody worked together so well that we were able to complete the system on time and within budget.

‘There is a tremendous amount of interest in the Rochdale scheme, with media inquiries coming in from the USA as well as across the UK, so it could well be that other health trusts take up the idea.’

Doctors In Store was founded in 2007 to provide a collaborative relationship between the NHS and stores. The concept was developed by a local GP, Dr Mohammed Jiva, to allow local residents to carry out activities under one roof – from shopping to a medical consultation.