Impact of Advanced Access

Last year we conducted a qualitativestudy entitled ‘The impact of AdvancedAccess’, as part of an Intercalated BScdegree, at a practice involved in theNational Primary Care Collaborativewho were implementing AdvancedAccess in January 2003. We inter-viewed patients and staff to investigatewhether their opinions of appointmentsystems, job satisfaction and workloadhad changed. Advanced Access ensured patientshad better access to their own GP andmany enjoyed not having to wait3 weeks for an appointment, especiallythose employed full time. However thiswas at the expense of elderly, morechronically ill patients, who wereunable to successfully navigate thetelephone system and tended to forgetto make their follow-up appointments.We were unsure as to whether accessto care was still in equilibrium withcontinuity of care.Advanced Access has the motto‘doing today’s work today’.