Taurus Healthcare has recently received recognition from NHS England (NHSE) for its Covid Administration Hub.

The Hub was set up in December 2021 to support the delivery of the covid vaccination programme across Herefordshire. Patients calling their GP Practices with a vaccination or other coronavirus enquiry are asked to select an option to seamlessly direct their call to the Hub. Specially trained staff are then able to book patients into clinics, as appropriate, or to manage a range of coronavirus related queries. They also proactively contact patients on behalf of practices to book them into vaccination clinics – for example 4th doses for the immunosuppressed.

The Hub supports 15 practices (out of 20 in the Federation) and is open on weekdays from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm (to coincide with practice opening hours). So far, nearly 1,500 calls have been received at the Hub.

Through its work, practices who have signed up for the service have been able to increase their capacity by focusing their efforts on non-vaccination related issues and as a result the patient experience has improved. One Practice Manager said: “The hub has been a great support and taken  pressure off our front-line reception staff.”

Following on from the success of the Hub, the team has now been trained to support the new Herefordshire Remote Health (HRH) service as part of Winter Access Funding. This service is running until the end of March 2022 and will initially provide remote duty doctor support. Future plans include extending the service to cover other clinical areas, for example nurse practitioners, pharmacy, first contact physiotherapy, long term conditions nurses, mental health and 111 and Accident and Emergency Support.

We think this is a great example of how at scale support from Taurus can help Herefordshire General Practice to deliver more efficient and effective services to all patients.