Appointments

We aim to ensure that our patients do not have to wait more than 2 working days for a routine appointment If you insist on seeing a specific doctor, your wait may be longer. If your condition is urgent, please inform the Reception Staff and we will see you that same day. Patients seen urgently cannot be guaranteed the time or doctor of their choice. An urgent condition is one that cannot reasonably be expected to wait until the next routine appointment. Only one patient per appointment, please.

NURSE APPOINTMENTS

When booking an appointment for the Nursing team our reception team are obliged to ask the nature of the appointment. This is purely because different nurse appointments require different times. Please tell the receptionist exactly what you need so they can ensure the correct time allotment. All our staff are covered by the same confidentiality rules and can be spoken to in total confidence.

Cancellation

Please ensure that you cancel any appointments that you no longer require. The number of patient who neither attend nor cancel their appointments is extremely high. These failures to attend are a total waste of NHS resources. Not attending booked appointments is very selfish and results in all others having to wait longer for appointments. Patients who repeatedly fail to attend appointments will be asked to find another Doctor.

Telephone Advice

When phoning to talk to a Doctor or Nurse please bear in mind the surgery times. The receptionists have been instructed not to interrupt a surgery except for emergencies. If you need to speak to a doctor or nurse please leave a message with a receptionist who will pass on the message after the clinic has finished. If the matter is urgent the receptionist will be able to put you through to the on-call doctor.

If possible tell the receptionist your question and she will often be able to to obtain a response from the on-call doctor without you needing to speak to a GP.

Home Visits

If possible please try to telephone reception before 10:30am if you require a home visit. The receptionist will ask why you think a home visit is needed so this information can be passed on to the doctors and ensure that the correct clinician visits. Sometimes it may be that the symptoms are too severe to wait for a routine visit and we need to have enough information to know whether to interupt the on-call doctor and possibly arrange a visit immediately or arrange emergency hospital admission.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back at around 12.00 as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or they may wish to obtain further information before visiting. It may also be decided that it would be more appropriate to send one of our nurses, a district nurse, a community matron, arrange hospital attendance or the doctor may ask you to attend at the surgery.

House visits are only available for patients who are clinically housebound because of illness or disability. The criteria for making housecalls has changed substantially in recent years. Please remember that, on average, three patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the surgery. Patient transport difficulties are not a justification for a home visit and patients must use taxis if necessary to attend the surgery. If patients are able to go out for other reasons, or  are able to attend hospital appointments, they can also attend the surgery.