As part of the new GP contractual arrangements, patient access was being brought to the front and centre of service provision. In March 2019, I knew that changes were being made to the contract, so that, combined with the need to replace a very out-dated telephone system meant that as a Practice we needed to look for a better telephony solution.
I came across Andrew Bowket from RPS in a networking meeting and asked him to help look at a solution for our Practice. From the moment I asked Andy to help to finally signing a contract, RPS have been extremely helpful and very professional. They were also very competitive in their pricing and contractual arrangements. RPS are a local company and I felt confident from the outset that they would support the Practice and be ‘just around the corner’ if we needed help.
We had several meetings to design our new system, and during these meetings I felt that RPS had a full understanding of our requirements and were keen to ensure that the correct solution was built for the Practice. Communication with RPS has been and continues to be excellent. The installation of cabling was managed very well and we were very satisfied with the work. There was minimal disruption to the operation of our practice.
Unfortunately COVID-19 meant that the full switch over to RPS could not happen on the planned date, but RPS overcame the problem and worked up a solution that would help the practice enormously during that difficult time. We had previously a very limited phone capacity, which meant that only 4 phone lines could be used at any one time. RPS managed to switch our outgoing calls to their system, meaning that we had unlimited outgoing calls, helping the medical team conduct telephone triage calls simultaneously with no restriction on line capacity. This for us was essential, and without RPS’s helping with this, our service to patients would have been severely limited.
Our new call recording platform and statistical package is very useful and will ensure that we have the necessary data to meet our requirements. Our new RPS system has meant that working at home became and extension of the office. The cloud system meant that a handset could be taken home, plugged into an internet connection and linked to the Practice system. This has proved invaluable during these recent times.
RPS have been very helpful providing training to the team which allowed the staff to feel confident using the new technology. I would not hesitate to recommend RPS to any GP surgery.
