GP IT system changes

Important information for patients

GP practices across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are being moved to a new clinical IT system, Vision 3, as part of the national GP IT re-provisioning programme across Scotland that will see all practices across Scotland using the same GP IT system.

This is a major change to the core computer system used by GP practices, rather than a routine software update. The system is used throughout the working day by clinical and administrative staff to support patient consultations, appointments, prescriptions, test results, correspondence and other essential practice processes.

What will this mean for patients?

There is likely to be a period of significant disruption around the time your practice changes system.

The planned period of greatest restriction is approximately 10 days around the migration date. During this period the practice may need to substantially reduce the number of routine appointments and non-urgent services it can provide.

However, migration is not complete simply when the new system goes live. Practices may continue to experience reduced efficiency and operational capacity during the following weeks and, in some cases, for approximately 2–3 months, while staff become familiar with the new system, practice workflows are re-established and any technical or migration issues are identified and resolved.

The extent of the impact will vary between practices. During the migration and recovery period, patients may experience:

• fewer routine appointments being available than usual
• longer waits for some routine appointments and services
• delays in processing non-urgent requests, letters, forms and other administrative work
• temporary changes to online services, including repeat prescription ordering and appointment booking
• prescriptions or other routine requests taking longer to process than usual

Your GP practice will continue to assess and prioritise urgent clinical needs throughout this period. Patients should not delay seeking medical advice if they have a new or worsening health problem. However, because practice capacity may be reduced, the way in which care is provided or the time taken to deal with less urgent matters may differ from normal.

Why can the effects continue after the changeover?

Moving from one clinical system to another affects many of the processes used by a GP practice every day.

In addition to learning a different system, practices may need to check transferred information, re-establish clinical and administrative workflows and resolve technical or configuration issues which only become apparent once the new system is being used in normal day-to-day practice.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the national GP IT programme and the system supplier provide support to practices during and after migration.

What is not changing?

You will remain registered with your GP practice and your medical record will be securely transferred to the new system.

Practices will continue to provide essential GP services and will prioritise patients according to clinical need. However, patients should be aware that overall practice capacity may be reduced temporarily during both the migration itself and the subsequent recovery period.

What can patients do?

If your practice has advised you that it is approaching migration, please follow any specific information it provides.

Where possible, order regular repeat prescriptions in good time before the migration period. Continue to attend booked appointments unless your practice advises otherwise.

Please continue to contact your practice if you have an urgent or important health concern. Do not avoid seeking necessary medical care because the practice is changing computer systems.

For routine or administrative matters, please be aware that your practice may take longer than usual to respond during the migration and recovery period.

We recognise that this may cause inconvenience for patients and appreciate your understanding while GP practices undertake this significant national IT change.

When will I know if my GP Practice is undergoing this change?

GP Practices will look to contact all patients in advance with as much notice as possible. This page will also list the impacted GP Practices below.

If you have not been contacted or informed of any impact, this change has already happened or will happen in the future.

Timetable of impacted practices