Are you a patient?

Are you a patient?

mobile phone image 1 Are you a patient?

Engage Consult is an online consultation service which is delivered by your GP practice.

Engage Health Systems is the provider of the technology and we do not and cannot provide advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Please contact your practice by visiting their website. As always, please dial 999 if this is an emergency, Or dial 111, or visit their website for non urgent medical advice.

Frequently asked questions

General FAQs

Online consultations allows you to contact your GP practice without having to telephone or go in person to the practice.  They are a secure way to ask your practice questions about your condition and symptoms and also get advice.  Engage Consult uses questionnaires (more on this later) based upon the reported problem to get additional information that will help your doctor to decide on the best course of action for you. The practice usually triages the request and responds within a stated time frame, usually the same or next working day.  This method of contacting your practice is not suitable for emergencies or urgent care.

In these circumstances please contact:

NHS111 – for urgent conditions when you are not sure what to do
A&E departments – for life-threatening emergencies or accidents
999 – for a medical emergency when you or someone you are caring for is seriously ill or injured.

Engage Consult allows patients to communicate safely and securely with their GP practice about non-urgent medical problems and administration requests.  Engage Consult also offers every patient access to NHS.UK for symptom-specific self-help information.  You can access Engage Consult from the NHS App, or by clicking on the Engage Consult link on your practice’s website. You can choose whether you are sending a message about a medical problem or an admin request.  You will be presented with a series of questions relating to the problem you have reported.  Completing the questionnaire fully will give your doctor a lot of useful information that will enable them to decide on the best course of action for you.  This may be inviting you in for an appointment, offering a video consultation, or sending you further advice using Engage Consults safe and secure 2-way message or telephoning you.  All of the information that you provide is saved to your medical record.  You can also upload pictures for an example of a rash or documents that you want your practice to see relating to your medical condition.

For Patients:

We are passionate about making sure that our products are safe and secure for patients and practices to use. We regularly review all aspects of the service to ensure that they meet the latest clinical safety and information governance regulations. Patient safety is paramount, if you report a problem that is clinically concerning you will be presented with an ‘Alert’. This alert will advise you that seeking guidance online may not be the most appropriate option for your reported problem, and direct you to other services for advice and guidance, for example, NHS111 or in some cases by calling 999 for emergency care. If you continue and submit your request you are advised that if your condition worsens or deteriorates then you should seek immediate help and not wait for a response from your practice.

At Engage Health Systems, we are ISO27001 accredited which means we have been through an internationally recognised information security independent review. The NHS has also robustly reviewed our information governance as part of our inclusion in multiple NHS procurement frameworks.

To access Engage Consult go to your practice’s website and click on the Engage Consult banner or logo usually found on the home page. You will be presented with a list of options, click on the “Request help from practice” box.  To set up your account click on the “Sign Up” box. Complete the following screens with your details, please check that you have entered everything correctly using your full name and not any abbreviations. Remember to make a note of your chosen user name and choose a memorable password.  You will need these details to log into your account to submit a message to your practice.  Patient user guides are available here.

Filling in the questionnaire will mean that the doctor (or other appropriate practice staff) has useful information to help her/him decide what to do next. There is a lot of research evidence to show that patients can provide very useful information using Computer Interviewing and also that sometimes just doing the questionnaire can have a positive effect and help patients with their problems.

Yes, you can. You log in to your own account and indicate that you want to send in a request on behalf of your child, or someone that you are caring for. Your practice will need to verify your relationship to ensure that you have consent to act on behalf of the person you are submitting a request on behalf of.

Your practice will review your request either the same day or the next working day.  The request will usually be reviewed by a member of the clinical team who will decide what the best course of action is to support you.

Engage Consult should help to improve your communication with your GP practice. You will not have to wait for the phone to be answered and if you set up an account, then your practice will be able to send you secure messages. Many of your queries may be able to be dealt with using the secure messaging system and this is not only more efficient for the GP practice but also for you. The idea is not to stop you from seeing the doctor – far from it, the aim is to provide the best and most appropriate mode of discussion in order to serve your needs as efficiently as possible, whilst also taking into account your wishes and valuing your time.

Let’s say that you have been feeling more tired and exhausted recently. If you use Engage Consult and fill in the questionnaire, then the doctor might suggest that you have some blood tests before a consultation. The doctor can send you this message via secure messaging and you won’t have to waste time with an appointment only to be told “let’s do some blood tests before we discuss this further” The doctor will also be able to ask you extra questions and you will be able to reply, using secure messaging – but if you want to send a message to say that you need help before a blood test can be done then you will be able to do that as well.

Absolutely you can.
The advantage of NHS Login is that you only have one login to remember for many health-related services and the system receiving your message knows that your identity has been verified by the NHS.

Yes, you can, however, bear in mind that at the moment you will not be able to send photographs or documents using the service.

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Testimonials

Our customers love what we do

“It is a quick and easy way to make a request that the surgery can deal with in their own time.”

“Very quick for routine query. I rang the surgery but was 19th in the queue so opted to try this service instead as my need was non urgent..”

Patient

Engage Consult

“Quicker than queuing at 830 on the phone and the receptionist gets back to you promptly”

User

Engage Consult

“Engage Consult is a fantastic vehicle to take you places. Where that place is, is up to you the driver. You may just want an electronic front door to the surgery, or perhaps you want a fully integrated question engine that can save you time through automated history taking, electronic triage, and messaging. Engage Consult can be customised to get you where you want to go. Like all journeys, don’t think that you’ll get there overnight. It takes a while to plan, embed and benefit. But take courage from those further on that it’s worth it”

“All the clinicians in the practice talked about it and I have to say we were dubious to start with and we had one enthusiast which was not me, we decided to implement it and give a try, it seems to have worked well and we’ve had no negative comments whatsoever and it’s even converted me, thinking this could be useful. Although I wouldn’t necessarily admit to that”

User

Engage Consult

“We’re very pleased with the Engage Touch screens. They are much easier to use than our old ones. During busy flu clinic season, the screens have really helped take the pressure off reception staff”

“The touchscreen and patient check in software  is working a treat and we wish we had got it years ago!”

Theresa Cameron

Practice Manager, Newland Medical Practice

“The screens and patient check in software are great and patients are happier as they don’t have to stand in a queue to check in”

Tracey Humphries

Patient Services Manager, Laurie Pike Health Centre

“We’ve used a number of Engage Health (Wiggly-Amps) products including the patient check in software over the years and always been extremely happy with the service we’ve received. We wouldn’t want to be without our touchscreen. It’s straightforward and simple to use. 95% of our FFT is completed through the touchscreen”

Siobhan Gorman

Practice Manager, Pickering Medical Practice

“The product & service of the Engage Touch, patient check in software we’ve received has been excellent”

Jane Kirkwood

Assistant Practice Manager, New Wokingham Road Surgery

“I would like to take the opportunity to thank you personally for the work you did so quickly to get us up and running with Engage Consult.  Our doctors and patients are beginning to use it more frequently and it has meant that we are getting less pictures through our email account which means the picture goes on the right patient record.  Thank you for responding so efficiently with our request to get us up and active.”

Nicky Hall

Practice Manager, Asplands Medical Centre

“When having concerns about a distinctive rash on my leg, I uploaded information through the Engage Consult system and a doctor rang me back within the hour. Early diagnosis has potentially saved me from a hospital visit so I am extremely grateful for the efficient service through the system and also the quick diagnosis I received from the GP.”

Patient, Engage Consult

“No other provider offers the functionality Engage Consult does. Being able to delegate consultations (to the GP Federation) has helped us massively in managing demand.”

Kieran Cambell RN MCPara, Clinical Services Manager/Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Arlington Road Medical Practice

“Engage Consult provides control, it integrates well with our Vision clinical system, and is slicker than other options; I tried other solutions, and nothing came close to the functionality of Engage Consult.”

Dr Chris Jones, Llansamlet Surgery, Cwmtawe Cluster, Swansea

“We are a new Engage Touch customer and have been having a few teething problems. The technical support we have received from the Service Delivery team has been excellent, the whole team at Engage Health Systems has been very supportive and always takes control to get things sorted for us in the quickest time possible.”

Jan Brown, Customer Service & Reception Manager, Whitley House Surgery, Chelmsford

“As a practice, we and our patients are very happy with the new Mobile Check in feature with Engage Touch. We are advertising the service on both our website and Facebook page and are seeing a good uptake of the service. Due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Covid and the Omicron variant, we are looking to encourage more of our patients to use the service. To this end we are offering one to one meetings with one of our receptionists to help our patients use this and other new technology, such as the NHS app.”
 
Nikki Howe, Assistant Practice Manager, Wateringbury Surgery

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