Appointment Types

Online Patient Requests

The fastest way to make an appointment is through our online patient request portal – Anima.

Anima can be accessed by clicking the pink Patient Requests button found to the right hand side of the screen, or by visiting https://patients.animahealth.com

Patients are still able to contact the Surgery by phone on 01709 870150. If your request is regarding a new medical problem, our Reception team will submit .

Patients can book appointments throughout the day and patients are encouraged to call at any time our phone lines are open – there is no requirement to call at 8am as soon as our phone lines are open. Patients will experience shorter waiting times by calling after 9am

Triage and Care Navigation

All patient requests for new medical problems, whether submitted online or by phone, will be triaged by our trained team of care navigator and clinicians. This triage process ensures that patients are navigated to an appropriate appointment or navigated towards an appropriate service

The right appointment, with the right clinician, in the right time frame

This may also mean that patients are advised to seek assistance from other organisations or providers such as local pharmacies, minor injuries units, dentists, or A&E.

Appointment Types

Doctor Appointments

Routine Doctor Appointments can be booked up to 10 working days in advance. The purpose of routine appointments is for general health queries, diagnoses, and monitoring of conditions. Routine appointments last for 15 minutes. When you contact the surgery you will be offered the next available appointment. Our waiting times for next available appointments vary throughout the year, however we always strive to reduce the time our patients need to wait to obtain the next available appointment.

You are entitled to see a GP of your choice and you should make this clear to the Receptionists, who will do their best to meet your needs . Please be aware that requesting a named GP, may increase your waiting time. Although we will always endeavour to offer you an appointment with the GP of your choice, there may be occasions where this will not always be possible.

Pharmacist Appointments

Pharmacists are experts in medication and prescribing. Most patients on repeat medications will require an annual medication review and these are conducted by our team of qualified pharmacists. They can also help with any medication queries, medication stock issues, or titration of active medications

Nurse Appointments

Our nurses are able to offer appointments for a wide variety of purposes which include

• Wound Care
• Long Term Management of Underlying Health Conditions (diabetes, hypertension, asthma, COPD etc)
• Contraception
• Lifestyle advice
• NHS Health checks
• Vaccinations and Immunisations (including travel)

Other Appointments

• First contact Physiotherapist – for an musculoskeletal issues such as back/neck/joint pain
• Mental Health Practitioners – for patients experiencing anxiety, bereavement
• Social Prescribers – for patients with social problems such as bereavement, isolation, financial concern
• Phlebotomy Appointments – for taking blood samples requested by a clinician

Same Day Appointments

These provide immediate access for our patients on the same day of request.

Same Day appointments to be able to deal with ‘significant’ health issues that, whilst not deemed as life threatening, require immediate attention.

On a daily basis we will have a number of clinicians – GPs and Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACP) – who manage our same day appointments, all of whom offer a number of appointments for a variety of health problems.

Many patients who are offered a same day appointments will be contacted and triaged/diagnosed by phone by either a Nurse Practitioner or a GP.

Emergency contraception is available at the surgery from both doctors and nurses; treatment must start as soon as possible.

Enhanced Access Appointments

The practice is also able to book appointments for a variety of clinicians at various daytime, evening and weekend clinics. These appointments are held at a variety of locations across Rotherham. Ask a receptionist about availability of Enhanced Access appointments which may be convenient to fit around work commitments

Cancellations

A polite request from us to you. If you cannot attend your appointment, please let us know. We are then able to offer that appointment to another patient.

How To Cancel

If we hold your mobile phone number on your patient record, you will often receive a text message reminding you of your appointment. The simplest way to cancel you appointment is just to reply to that message with the word CANCEL – Please don’t include any other words or grammar in your reply text, or the system will not be able to process your cancellation request.

You can also phone the surgery and inform us that you wish to cancel your appointment. Please call us on 01709 870150

We understand that on occasion, patients may forget, or for other reasons, are not be able to cancel their appointments in good time. We will therefore write to you, reminding you of our procedures for cancellation, and requesting that you ensure you attend all future appointments. Where patients continue to miss multiple appointments, the decision may be taken to remove you from our patient list. You will always be contacted by letter of our intention to remove you from our patient list, so that you have the opportunity to appeal the decision.

Remember – every appointment you don’t attend, denies another patient an opportunity to seek medical help. It costs the NHS money and uses up valuable resources. Help your NHS by cancelling your appointments with as much notice as possible!