Appointment Types

The fastest way to make an appointment is through our online patient access service which you can access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To make an appointment with a Doctor or Nurse, either call in person at Reception or telephone on 01709 870150.

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 endeavor to offer you an appointment with the GP of your choice, there may be occasions where this will not always be possible..

Routine

Routine Appointments can be booked several weeks in advance. The purpose of routine appointments is for general health queries, diagnoses, and monitoring of conditions (also known as non-urgent appointments). Routine appointments last for 10 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 can request to see a specific GP, however please be aware that making this request may increase the time until an appointment can be made.

Our Routine Appointments with GPs run in sessions.
A morning session runs between 07:10 – 11:10 Tuesday and Thursday, and 08:30 – 11:10 Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Afternoon sessions run from 15:30-18:10 Monday-Friday

Urgent Appointments

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

We create urgent 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 Nurse Practitioners) who manage our urgent appointments, all of whom offer a number of appointments for a variety of health problems.

Upon contacting the surgery, our receptionists will ask you for a brief explanation of your illness and symptoms – this is so that they can establish what appointment type is best for your needs. Our receptionists have all attended training on Care Navigation, and they are competent in ensuring that they are able to direct your medical requirements to the correct clinician and the correct level of urgency. All of our staff, including receptionists, are bound by contract in patient confidentiality and so everything you tell them remains in the strictest confidence.

Most of our patients who are referred to urgent appointments will, at first, be contacted and triaged 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.

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

Removal from Patient List

Serial missed appointments are a serious drain on valuable NHS resources. We therefore do have a practice policy regarding patients with multiple missed appointments.

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. However once we have issued this request, any further missed appointments, may result in you being removed 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!

Telephone Appointments

Routine Telephone Appointments

Not all consultations require a face to face meeting with our clinicians – for example discussing test results following a previous consultation. Our GPs all have dedicated telephone consultation slots at the end of their morning sessions. You may therefore be booked to receive a telephone call from your GP as part of routine follow-up or routine consultation.

Telephone Triage

Our clinicians that offer urgent ‘on the day’ care, also operate a telephone triage surgery. Throughout the day our GPs and Nurse Practitioners will be able to call you and offer a consultation over the phone. If they are not able to offer sufficient help and support over the phone, and believe that you need to be seen in person, then they will be able to offer you a face to face appointment on the same day.

Our receptionists will inform you that you have been listed on the telephone triage list. Please make sure that you have given us the best number on which to contact you, and that you are able to access your phone throughout the day in order to receive your call.

Unfortunately due to the volume of calls our clinicians make on a daily basis, we are not able to offer specific time frames for telephone triage calls.