Appointments

In recent years the protocol for open surgery has undergone some changes so please take a look at the following information to keep up-to-date with our current arrangements.

Please note that open surgery appointments are only bookable on the day unless authorised or requested by a clinician.

Phone calls to book open surgery slots can be taken when the phone lines open at 8:30am if you are unable to come into the surgery to request an appointment.

Alternatively, the enquiry window opens at 8am and appointments can be booked for open Surgery at this time. This option may be preferred for those who wish to book in with a particular clinician as our appointments are first come first served and this option gives a better chance of seeing your preferred clinician although this is still not guaranteed.

If you do come into the surgery to request an open surgery slot once this slot has been booked, you will need to leave the surgery and come back in around the time of your assigned time slot. We ask that patients attend no more than 10 minutes earlier than their given appointment time to reduce the amount of people waiting in the surgery at any one time thus reducing your own potential wait time.

Should your preferred clinician be unavailable or fully booked for that day you will be offered an appointment with an alternative clinician. It would be your decision if you wished to accept this appointment but please be aware that staff will not be able to add extra appointments onto a session if there are other clinicians available.

Start times for appointments can vary depending on the clinician. Telephone slots can start between 8am to 8:45am whilst face to face appointments can be offered from 8:40 depending on what appointments are available with each clinician on that particular morning.

Face to face appointments can be requested up until the end of open surgery where appropriate but you may be asked to come straight down and wait for the appointment should it be near the end of the session.

Please be aware that face to face appointments will not be booked after 10:30am and from that time till 11:00am only telephone slots will be available.

Also please remember that open surgery finishes at 11:00am. If you approach us after this time the reception staff will not be able to add any more patients to the clinicians’ lists.

The surgery employs three nurse practitioners who work alongside GP’s during open surgeries or by appointment at other times.

The Surgery has four practice nurses who run various specialist clinics including asthma, diabetes, travel immunisations etc.

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.

At any time of the day or night you can access help by calling the NHS Direct service on 111. You will be put through to a triage operator who will ask you some basic questions about your condition/concern and will arrange for either a nurse or doctor to call you back.

You may, of course, call the surgery to ask for help or advice.

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. Patients who do not attend booked appointments on 3 consecutive occasions within a 6 month period will be notified of such in writing. Continuation of this may result in being removed from the practice list.

If you are unable to attend the 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 the surgery.

Please contact the surgery before 10:00.

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 a 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.

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.

If requested a member of the practice staff can accompany you during your consultation and/or examination with a GP or a nurse.