HOW DO I...
Make An Appointment?
The surgery runs a mixture of open
and booked appointments. Open surgeries are held Monday and Friday mornings 08.45 - 10.30.
Appointments for practice nurses can be made by calling in at reception or by
telephone between 08.30 - 12.30 and 13.45 - 17.45 Monday to Friday. Appointments
can also be made for doctors in the above way. However, we also have an automated
booking system which allows you to make, check or cancel appointments 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. To use this system we must hold the most up-to-date
telephone number for you and your date of birth must be correct on our system. For more information please enquire at reception.
Most clinics are by appointment
only. Patients are usually seen by their usual doctor for booked appointments,
but if that doctor is unavailable an appointment will be offered with one of
the other partners. If you are unable to keep an appointment, please let us know
so that it can be offered to someone else. If you need to be seen URGENTLY please
tell the staff so that the doctor can be informed. Some appointments are kept
open for emergencies, to be booked on the day. Monday mornings are always very
busy so, if possible, please telephone at other times.
The surgery employs a nurse practitioner, Lesley Waters, who works
alongside GPs during open surgeries or by appointment at other times.
The surgery also employs health care assistants who work alongside
our doctors and nurses. They run clinics for things such as blood pressure monitoring, ECGs,
urine testing, new patient checks, etc.
Lunch Time
There will be an answering machine message between 12.30 - 13.45.
Please listen to the message for emergency contact number.
On certain dates throughout the year the surgery will be closed
between 12.30 and 14.00 for staff training. A list of these dates can be be found at reception.
HOW DO I...
Request A
Home Visit?
If you are unable to attend surgery on
medical grounds, you may wish to ask the doctor to see you at home.
Please do not ask the doctor to call unless the patient is genuinely too ill
to come to surgery. Please contact the surgery before 10.00am. In an EMERGENCY
please ring any time for further advice. Please remember that on average the
doctor can see four or five patients in surgery in the time taken to make one
home visit. We try to abide by the following guidelines:
Visiting Guidelines
As Recommended By The British Medical Association In Action
Green (visit recommended)
Situation where GP visiting makes
clinical sense and provides the best way to give medical opinion.
a. The terminally
ill
b. The truly bedbound patient for whom travel to premises by
car would cause deterioration in medical condition.
Amber (visit may
be useful)
Situation where on occasions visiting
may be useful. Where, after initial assessment over the telephone, a seriously
ill patient may be helped by a GP's attendance to prepare them to travel to hospital.
That is where a GP's other commitments do not prevent him/her from arriving prior
to the ambulance. Examples of such situations are:
a. heart attack
(chest pains)
b. severe shortness of breath
c. severe haemorrhage (bleeding)
It must be understood that, if a
GP is about to embark on a booked surgery of 25 patients but is informed that
one of his/her patients is suffering from symptoms suggestive of a heart attack
(chest pains), the sensible approach may be to send an emergency paramedical
ambulance rather than attending personally.
Red (visit not appropriate use of GP's time)
a. Common symptoms
of childhood, fevers, colds, earache, diarrhoea, vomiting and most cases of abdominal
pain. These patients are almost always well enough to travel by car.
The old wives' tale that it is unwise to take a child out with a fever is blatantly
untrue. It may well be that these children are not indeed fit to travel by bus,
or walk, but car transport is sensible and always available from friends, relatives
or taxi firms. It is not necessarily a doctor's job to arrange such transport
facilities.
b. Adults with common problems of cough, sore throat, flu, back
pain, abdominal pain are also readily transportable by car to the doctor's premises.
c. Common problems in the elderly, such as poor mobility, joint
pain, general malaise, would also be best treated by consultation at a doctor's
premises. The exception to this would be in the truly bedbound patient.
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