Anima

We are pleased to announce an update to the way our patients can request same day appointments. We have introduced a new triage system called ‘Anima’.

Anima seamlessly and confidentially integrates with your medical record bringing improvements to how you request same day appointments and how our staff assess your condition.

Anima allows our team to continue to improve access times by helping us to direct you to the most appropriate care for your medical needs. This ensures we make use of our limited resources in the most safe and efficient way. All appointments will continue to be offered according to clinical urgency and need.

Your request will be handled in exactly the same manner whether you complete the Anima request online yourself, or contact us via telephone, where our receptionists will ask the same questions to ensure equity of access for all patients.

We would encourage all patients who can do so to use Anima, as this will prevent you needing to queue on the telephone and keep lines free for those who do not have internet access.

Completing an Anima request yourself also provides you with more discretion should you prefer not to discuss your medical problem with one of our receptionists.

What are the benefits to me as a patient?

As a patient you will benefit from:

Being able to log on to see the status and outcomes of your current and past requests.
You will be asked questions based on your issues
Your medical records will be more complete for the future
The practice responses will be clearer
You will receive a text message and email to let you know when the practice has responded (no more missing emails in the junk box).
You can provide all the information that the practice needs without waiting on the phone

What are the benefits to the practice?

As a practice, Malthouse Surgery will benefit from:

Seeing your request in a clear structured format
Being able to save all the information about your requests in a structured way into your medical records – This will help staff when looking at your records for this episode of care or in the future.
Less duplications of requests
Your requests will be clearer to understand at first glance meaning we will be able to allocate to the most appropriate members of our team, making the turn around more efficient.
Your requests will come into our system with a Red, Amber, Green rating with clear information about what responses have trigger the rating. This will allow the team to focus on any urgent requests.
We will be able to provide clearer responses due to the way that Anima builds the response as we perform actions.

We would like to ask for your patience whilst we change to Anima as we are aware that introducing any new system may have some teething troubles, however we are not anticipating any disruption.

We have listened to patient feedback and hope you find Anima easier to use. We are really excited about this change and the benefits it will bring to all our patients and staff.

More information is available on the Anima website patients.animahealth.com/.

NHS App

You will be able to access Anima using the NHS app as well as by setting up an Anima username and password, we recommend using the NHS app. Download the NHS App to a mobile device – you can do this by clicking here. A valid form of ID is required to register for the NHS App so please have this to hand. You can also use the NHS app on a PC.

What if I can’t access the internet or am unable to complete an online consultation?

It is important to us that all patients are able to access our services and access them fairly.

If you do not have internet access or are unable to complete an online consultation then we are happy to help you with this. Please call the practice and a member of our team will create a Proxy Anima e-consultation request for you.

What type of questions will I be asked over the telephone?

When completing an Anima e-consultation on your behalf, a member of our team is presented with a number of questions that are evidence based and algorithmic. Some of these questions may be sensitive in nature and it is not the staff member being nosy! It is important that you answer all the questions as accurately as possible in order for you to get access to the right person and the right advice and to help the practice help you in the best way possible.

How will you make contact with me?

Depending on the nature of your request and our response, we may contact you in various ways. For example, we may be able to process your request without having to speak to you and therefore will send you an SMS and/or email. If we need to speak to you directly, then we will contact you via telephone – please note, calls from our practice may appear as ‘No Caller ID’ or ‘Blocked’ – please ensure you answer if you are expecting a call from our team. The clinician may invite you to take part in a video consultation and if so, will provide further instructions during your call.