48th Medical Group prioritizes appointments

  • Published
  • By Capt. Robert Russin
  • 48th Medical Group
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  The period from June to August 2011 will be a time of significant manning shortages for the 48th Medical Group. During this period, availability of primary care appointments in the Family Health, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine Clinics will be in limited supply.

The 48th MDG is required to prioritize how our appointments are filled, as our priority is to ensure care for our active duty, TRICARE Prime and TRICARE Plus patients. Due to this, space-available appointments will be more difficult to obtain for the next few months.

For our space-available patients who have an acute or routine issue that may be addressed in a single visit with a provider, patients can call the central appointment line at 01638 528 010 after noon on any duty day to check the availability of space-available appointments. "Space-A" appointments for that day may be offered to any eligible beneficiary once all active duty, TRICARE Prime and TRICARE Plus patients have been seen.

We are currently working with a civilian host-nation provider to be able to offer our "Space-A" patients an acute appointment at an outpatient medical facility. During this temporary situation another option is to access the U.K. National Health Service. You can find a civilian general practitioner in the NHS at www.nhs.uk. Enter your postcode under the "Find and choose services" tab in the center of the page to locate a general practitioner.

Before enrolling with a host nation provider, check with your insurance company to ensure your care will be covered under your health plan.

In the event of an emergency, authorized beneficiaries will have continued access to the 48th MDG emergency department. Routine care will not be addressed in the emergency department.

Our goal is to provide all of our beneficiaries with the best possible care. We're doing everything in our power to expand access. We have increased appointments by 15 visits, per provider per week and moved administrative time to after duty hours.

We're also constantly revisiting our options to gain further improvements. We expect to resume seeing all patient categories in September 2011 as manning improves in the Family Health, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine Clinics.