Telephone Triage and Consultation: Are We Really Listening?

To begin I am GP with with over 10 years of experience in this field and almost as many in hospital medicine. I bought this book as I was considering attending a course with Sally-Anne Pygall and I wanted to check if the time commitment, including 5 hours in a car, would be worth it. Yes, very simply it was the best time spent in several years of courses and training that I have gone through. Having read her book in full and having attended her course I think her knowledge should become a standard part of doctor/nurse training regardless of the field they end up in...unless they never pick up a phone and talk to a patient.Her book contains everything from her course and you can take it at your own time and review as needed so you will miss nothing. It details communication skills, how to structure calls, what to aim for, efficiency and safety both for the patient and the practitioner and much more. The 11 chapters are concise, well structured and a pleasure to read.If you get the chance to attend one of her courses then I cannot recommend her highly enough. She has the wonderful talent of being engaging, stimulating, thought provoking and great fun to listen to.I am only sorry I did not take this training much earlier.Thank you Sally-Anne.

Well structured material and very useful to any clinician consulting by phone. More and more are doing so and I'm grateful to Sally-Anne for writing such a clear text on the skills. I'm an engineer rather than a clinician, dealing with the operational system in general practice and the book touches on this with realisitic advice, pointing out for example that an average 3 minute duration is unachievable, 5 or 6 is nearer the norm.I'm recommending this book to GPs I work with as there is, to my knowledge, no better practical book.

I am a GP contemplating more OOH work. This is also v good for GP trainees learning about telephone triage for in hours, OOH work and CSA of course. Covers safety and risk as well as some case scenarios. Good discussion re communication skills adaptation for this sort of consulting. Much cheaper to buy than doing the RCGP course.Had to wait several weeks for it to be in stock so I suspect is in high demand

Good baseline for telephone triage

Very basic. But overall worth a skim as the overarching principle of the book is well meaning, but would borrow a copy or look at it in a library. As per most RCGP publications, keeping true to form in not quite understanding what a GP needs and what would be helpful.

Very useful book for GPs. Highly recommended!!!

Sally - Anne Pygall delivers what she promises with this book. The experienced to the novice will all find this book invaluable. Covers all aspects from effective communication, structuring a call, record keeping and safety netting, with golden nugget advice on how to deal with common pitfalls. I have throughly enjoyed reading this book, which is a first. It's truly a skill to write in the academia world and have an enjoyable read, a rare commodity.

Informative and interesting