Setting the scene
The Westongrove Partnership, a three-site GP practice in Buckinghamshire, has a team of 130 staff serving a diverse patient population of nearly 34,000. By early 2023, it faced significant challenges: persistent complaints, long telephone wait times and limited patient access channels were leaving patients frustrated and staff overwhelmed. Like many surgeries across the UK, Westongrove found its ageing systems unable to keep pace with rising demand. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed deep-rooted fragilities in the system, particularly around telephone access and patient navigation. It wasn’t just about long waits on the phone. There was a growing sense that the practice model was no longer fit for purpose.
Westongrove’s ambition was to move beyond firefighting and make a fundamental shift in how it managed access to care. This meant not just adopting technology, but reshaping the patient journey around it. Working closely with X-on Health, the practice integrated two transformative solutions, Surgery Connect and Surgery Assist, ushering in a new era of smarter, more equitable access.
The challenge
The pressures at Westongrove were both quantitative and qualitative. Complaints about access were rising, especially around the telephone system.
Some of the key challenges included:
- A fragmented phone system across three sites, contributing to confusion and inefficiencies
- Extended wait times for patients, with nearly 36% of survey respondents reporting it was “very difficult” to get through by phone
- Low uptake of digital tools such as the NHS App, limiting opportunities for patient self-service
- A growing volume of inappropriate GP appointment requests and administrative queries
The status quo was not sustainable. Staff were feeling the strain of managing outdated systems across three separate sites, each with its own telephone number. There was limited visibility across call queues and minimal data to support operational decisions. This was creating frustration, burnout and inefficiencies throughout the organisation.
To meet the expectations of both patients and NHS England’s digital ambitions, Westongrove needed a model that could reduce inbound demand, redirect patients to more suitable services and deliver a better experience across every touchpoint. With X-on Health, Westongrove embarked on a full digital transformation, rooted in intelligent care navigation.
The solution
Westongrove’s digital access transformation began with the implementation of Surgery Assist, X-on Health’s AI-powered care navigation assistant. Initially deployed as a hybrid digital assistant in early 2024, the tool was fully integrated into the practice’s access model later that year.
Designed to redirect up to 30% of patient queries away from the phone queue, Surgery Assist was tailored to work with Westongrove’s existing systems, helping patients find the right service—whether it was online prescription ordering, Pharmacy First or self-referral to community services. Crucially, the digital assistant wasn’t just a chatbot, it was their chatbot. It was personalised with a familiar GP face of Dr Ashish Patel, reinforcing trust and improving engagement. Patients appreciated the ability to navigate services quickly and intuitively, while staff saw an immediate drop in inappropriate calls and administrative friction.
Later that year, the practice secured funding to modernise its telephony system. In December 2024, within just six weeks and under winter pressure, Westongrove replaced its legacy telephony with Surgery Connect, X-on Health’s advanced Cloud-based system. With features such as Patient Callback, real-time reporting dashboards and call handler flexibility across sites, Surgery Connect gave the team new levels of visibility, flexibility and control.
Rather than treat these as separate systems, Westongrove adopted Surgery Connect and Surgery Assist as parts of a unified access model, bridging gaps between online, voice and face-to-face channels. The digital front door was now open, and patients were empowered to use it.
The results
For patients, the changes were immediate and meaningful. Long-standing frustrations around phone access were resolved with the Patient Callback feature, while Surgery Assist helped people get the help they needed without waiting in a call queue. Friends and Family Test scores reflected a reversal in sentiment, with complaints around unreturned calls replaced by praise for ease, speed and choice.
- Call wait times fell dramatically
- Missed and abandoned call rates dropped
- NHS App registrations rose by almost 2,000, pushing usage up to 71%—approaching the 75% national target
- Repeat prescription requests via the NHS App increased by 25%, further relieving pressure on the reception team
- App views doubled from 13,000 to 26,000, indicating deeper patient engagement
Surgery Assist in particular proved critical to promoting self-service and signposting. Patients could now access care 24/7, in multiple languages, from any device. Those who needed human support could still speak to a receptionist, while those who didn’t were quickly redirected to more appropriate services.
For staff, the change has been just as significant. Westongrove now operates with a single phone number across three sites, streamlining workflows and enabling more effective rota planning. Real-time dashboards allow administrators to monitor demand and reassign resources accordingly. The ability to access call recordings has improved training and complaint handling. As one staff member noted:
Being able to access so much data is excellent – it lets us keep a keen eye on call queues, and switch call handlers in and out of the system based on demand.
Another added:
The patient’s number and name come up when you answer the phone, this is very helpful and saves time.
What’s more, team morale has lifted noticeably, with staff feeling more empowered and less overwhelmed. The technology is seen not as a burden, but as an enabler, one that helps them deliver a better service without adding to their workload.
Looking ahead
Westongrove’s transformation didn’t stop at go-live. With continuous call flow optimisation guided by real-time data and staff feedback, the practice has embedded an agile access model that flexes with patient needs and operational capacity.
The team at Westongrove aren’t just early adopters, they’re leading the way. The model has already been shared in national webinars and is being adopted by peer practices across the UK. Their agile approach demonstrates what’s possible when patient access is treated not just as a technical issue, but as a patient experience challenge to be solved together.
X-on Health’s projections suggest that if replicated across the country, the model could help the NHS reduce over 9 million monthly inbound calls, while eliminating 2.3 million missed calls, restoring confidence in primary care. As pressures across general practice grow, this model provides a scalable blueprint for transformation that is grounded in user insight, executed in partnership and focused on impact.
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