Appointments

Contact with GPs will initially be by telephone appointments .  If the GP feels you need a face to face appointment this will be arranged when you are speaking to the GP.  If you are booking a telephone consultation with the GP please ensure you are available to take the call when he/she rings. 

Morning Surgery 

09:00 – 11:00 daily - bookable by telephone from 8.30am each morning.

We aim to offer patients with acute medical problems a timely appointment service. Morning surgery appointments are offered on the same day you wish to be seen. Please phone to arrange an appointment from 08:30. Please note you cannot arrange to see a specific doctor in this clinic nor can you request a specific time.  Appointments will be allocated on a first come first served basis. 

Please note:   there is a limited number of patients can be seen in a morning session.   

Afternoon Surgery 

Afternoon surgeries are staggered to start between 14:30 and 16:00. The last appointment is at 17:30. Afternoon surgeries are strictly by appointment only and are available with the GP of your preference.

Afternoon appointments can be booked up to 2 weeks in advance and consist of Face to Face, Telephone and Emergency (The emergency appointments are filled ONLY by the GP following triage by the GP.

Appointments with the doctors are scheduled to last 10 minutes. If for any reason you require a longer consultation please inform reception at the time of booking so this can be facilitated.

We will endeavour to offer an appointment with a particular General Practitioner if you express a preference, however this cannot be guaranteed, especially for urgent or same day appointments.

Cancellations

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else.

Home Visits

If possible please try to telephone reception before 10:00 if you require a home visit.

You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed.  The GP may phone you if he/she feels this is more appropriate.

You can be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.

Remember that we can see several patients at the practice in the time it takes for one home visit.  Patients should have their appointment at the surgery if they can.

Lack of transport is not a reason to request a home visit.

CARE NAVIGATION

Don’t be offended if you are asked what your symptoms/issue is when you ring to book an appointment.   This is called Care Navigation and it’s about helping you get the service you need!

You may have noticed your receptionist now asks for a brief outline of your symptoms/issue when you ring for an appointment.

This is because we have now introduced “Care Navigation”.   It means receptionists have been trained to help them help patients by identifying the most appropriate please for their care.

Through this specialist training, our practice team will be able to direct you to the most appropriate health clinician for your needs first.

This does not mean receptionist will offer clinical advice or triage; this new way of working is about offering you the choice to see more appropriate professionals in the practice team or even somewhere else.   If they can deal with the problem directly, it will often be quicker and means you may not need to have contact with the GP at all.

By working this way, it helps to free up time for Gps to care for patients with complex or serious health conditions that can only be managed by the GP.  More importantly, it means people are seen first by the clinician that is best placed to manger their issue. 

The choice is always yours though and you will never be refused GP contact (either by phone or face to face) but we hope next time you contact your GP and speak with the receptionist you will see the value of seeing or being contacted by another health professional if they are able to help.

If you would like someone to explain this to you in person, a member of our practice team will be happy to help.

The Care Navigator might suggest other professionals that could help you better such as:

• Pharmacy
• Minor Ailments Scheme (free at pharmacy)
• Practice Pharmacist
• Practice Nurse
• Optician (Primary Care Assessment Referral -PEARS) - free of charge
• Dentist
• Antenatal booking - self referral
• Physiotherapy - self referral for back or neck problem, a joint/muscular pain or have had a recent injury such as a sprain - free of charge