Prerecorded information on GP phone lines
Download (PDF 317.46 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Islington decided to undertake mystery shopping of GP’s recorded messages after hearing from some people that these were very long. Healthwatch volunteers called GP practices in Islington. They noted the length of the prerecorded messages with which they were presented and made observations about the content.
The length of the recorded messages on practice phone lines (including menu options) most commonly came in at between one and two minutes.
The most frequently identified message was that the volunteer's call was being recorded for training and monitoring/quality purposes. Where practices try to include too many different pieces of information in the recording they may experience diminishing returns in terms of what a caller may retain.
Some practices used recorded messages to share information about services and access routes that can help take pressure off general practice and to let callers know about choice of appointments.
Mystery shoppers were not always told whether or not they were in a queue to speak to someone. This could make it difficult for patients to know whether they should wait on the line or not.
On a number of occasions mystery shoppers observed that Information was delivered very quickly, too fast to take in. All mystery shoppers spoke English as a first language.
The report contains four recommendations about the content, length and tone of prerecorded messages.