A ‘telephone first’ approach to demand management in English general practice: a multimethod evaluation

Background The increasing difficulty experienced by general practices in meeting patient demand is leading to new approaches being tried, including greater use of telephone consulting. Objectives To evaluate a ‘telephone first’ approach, in which all patients requesting a general practitioner (GP) appointment are asked to speak to a GP on the telephone first. Methods The study used a controlled before-and-after (time-series) approach using...