TY - JOUR T1 - Telephone triage in-hours: does it work? JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 327 LP - 328 DO - 10.3399/bjgp14X680377 VL - 64 IS - 624 AU - Stephen Gillam Y1 - 2014/07/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/64/624/327.abstract N2 - ‘More than 26 million people in England had to wait for a week or more to see or speak to their GP last year.’1Those leading the College’s campaign for more investment cite this as evidence of a funding crisis in general practice. Others may see it differently but no one disputes our escalating workloads; the number of consultations has risen by over 75% since 1995.2 Many practices struggle to meet the daytime demand for appointments and innovative ‘solutions’ have immediate appeal. Many readers will recall the hyperbole that surrounded the Advanced Access initiative. Similar claims for its transformative effects are nowadays being made by those promoting the use of telephone triage.3 This is potentially big business but what do we know of its impact on workloads? What other consequences follow from large scale adoption of telephone triage to manage routine calls?With characteristic prescience, Geoffrey Marsh was promoting telephone consultation as part of the future of general practice a quarter of a century ago4 but its use is sharply rising. A recent survey of 1148 practices found that 56% used some form of telephone triage; 9% of practices triaged all their patients.5 There are, of course, many different ways of using telephony for demand management (Box 1) and this variety presents an obvious dilemma for those in search of answers.Box 1. Models of telephone care: a checklistReception staff book telephone lists followed by: ▪ Nurse-led telephone triage▪ Doctor-led telephone triageWhole sessions or end-of-surgery appointmentsWhole day or morning onlyAppointments booked by telephone consulter for own/other doctors/other staff surgeriesExclusions … ER -