£850kbenefits boost for patients
PEOPLE facing financial hardship claimed £850,000 in benefits after a money advice worker was put into their GP practice.
A pilot study at Parkhead Health Centre freed up doctors to focus on health and helped patients claim money they were entitled to.
Advice workers was able to fasttrack social security claims because they had direct access to patient records.
GPs involved in the three-year project also said it reduced the number of times patients asked to see their doctor.
A total of 276 referrals for help were made by doctors to the onsite worker, compared with just 24 across 42 other GP practices who didn’t have a worker on-site.
The pilot is now going to be rolled out to an additional seven GP practices (resulting in a total of nine practices with an embedded advice worker).
From December 2015 to May 2017, 276 referrals were made to the advice worker based at two GP practices in the health centre.
Of these patients, 165 engaged with the advice service resulting in almost £850,000 worth of benefits they were entitled to.
The project also helped patients reduce £156,000 worth of debt, secured free bus passes and supported people to use less expensive forms of credit.
Around half of the people engaged with the service were also referred to additional forms of community support such as homelessness, mental health and carer support.
The Deep End Advice Worker pilot project used a financial advice worker from the Greater Easterhouse Money Advice Project (GEMAP).
The project was evaluated by Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
Dr Ronnie Burns, one of the GPs involved in the project, said: “The financial figures speak for themselves, but also, the patients I have referred seem to have reduced their consultation rates.”
Professor Graham Watt, from GPs in the Deep End/University of Glasgow said the project could prove beneficial when Holyrood takes on new welfare powers.
He said: “This project shows how it can be done, engaging with general practices, building on trusted relationships with patients, generating new referrals to advice services and hugely benefiting large numbers of patients.”