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18 months ago, we hit a perfect storm. Change in partners, PCSE clawbacks and several invoices outstanding (including ICB payments). We quickly found ourselves in a financially tight position with concerns about how we could remain viable in the future.

The finance support helped us with bookkeeping, forecasting and breaking down our income and outgoings to help work out what was actually profitable for us and to help us budget for the future.

We now meet quarterly with their management accountant, so nothing comes as a surprise anymore. We are now able to plan our workforce, understand how this ties in with PCN ARRS recruitment and services, and we feel much more in control.

GP practices are businesses, but businesses without dedicated expert departments like finance, HR and communications which are essential to operate effectively.

The finance experts make my life so much easier and I continue to lean on the team more and more. Through the communications support we have changed website provider, upped our social media content and generally made us more self-aware with how we are communicating. More recently, we have also worked with the team on some HR issues, and received support for the transition to total triage. This was a big project and a big culture shift for both staff and patients, all of which felt so much more manageable through their assistance.

All in all, I would be lost without all of the above and am extremely grateful for the support the Cura team provides.

We knew that we wanted to start communicating more effectively with each other and our patients, but we simply didn’t know where to start. We were worried that we would be opening the floodgates in a way that we weren’t able to handle – but this wasn’t the case. The ability to communicate with patients enmasse, share public health information in different formats and showcase best practice within our PCN, has been invaluable and we’re starting to see great traction and levels of engagement. It’s crucial that we counteract the negative narrative in the news.

Following our management referral, our member of staff felt the conversation was extremely helpful and very supportive. The whole experience was amazing, and she was very grateful that your team were there for her.

Working with the team has really helped to transform how we think about approaching communication with patients and other stakeholders. The work helped us plan and develop how we present ourselves, how we wished to be perceived and what we wanted people to know. The guidance on how to safely and effectively use social media has helped us to become visible within our community and present ourselves professionally among our peers. We’ve found that having a visible professional profile means that people take you seriously and want to work with you.

Katrina’s meticulous approach to her work gives me and the Partners great confidence in her ability to navigate the complexities of NHS funding. The team offer us added financial security, so there is always someone available to help us. The Cura team are now an integral part of our team here at Crouch Oak.

GP practices are businesses, but businesses without dedicated finance experts which is essential to operate effectively. The finance team make my life so much easier and I continue to lean on the team more and more. I would be lost without the support and am extremely grateful for the support they provide.

We are now able to be more open with patients – improving our website, communicating key practice and health information via social media, sending a regular newsletter, responding to our online reviews and also improving our information boards within the reception area. We’re being more consistent with our signposting and we’re seeing an increase in positive patient reviews as a result.

Prior to working with your team, we had trialled 2 other services, including one AI-based solution, which unfortunately did not provide the flexibility, accuracy and support we required. Following some initial calls with the team, we quickly realised that their service was far better than the others we had trialled. They learned our internal processes without any difficulties, coded letters extremely well and were very good at communicating any issues or updates along the way. We have now reached a stable place internally and could not recommend their services highly enough.

The workflow support team helped us significantly when we were struggling with the discharge summaries backlog from our local Trust. The team completed over 75% within a two week period, scanning through each document and filing / actioning allowed our team to focus on new correspondence and not fall behind.  
 
Instructions were clear on all discharge letters that needed a GP review, saving our GPs time so that they weren’t having to go through each letter, only the ones that required clinical attention.