Booking an Appointment
Surgeries are held at various times throughout the day. Please make an appointment either in person or by telephone. There are a number of different appointment types:
Pre-bookable — We offer some appointments that you can book in advance with your preferred GP. This includes early morning surgeries.
On the day — the bulk of appointments we have to offer are available on the day. Please phone at 8am if you wish an on the day appointment. Please note that demand for these appointments is high and that they can go very quickly.
Telephone consultation — some problems do not require a face to face appointment. We have telephone appointments some of which you can book in advance for your preferred GP, others which can be requested on the same day. If you think your problem could be dealt with by phone then please ask for a telephone appointment. If the Doctor or nurse feels that you need to be seen then they will be able to arrange a surgery appointment for you.
Please note we do not offer a walk in service.
You are welcome to express a preference for a particular Doctor or nurse. We try to accommodate such requests but this is subject to availability.
Extended Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 7.15 am
Appointment Times
GP appointments are for 15 minutes.
If you have more than one problem to discuss, please tell the Doctor this at the start of your appointment so that your problems can be prioritised.
Clearly it is impossible for a Doctor to deal with several complex problems during a single consultation – you may be asked to make a further appointment(s) to deal with the less pressing issues.
Please arrive on time for your appointment—if you are late the Doctor may be unable to see you. Please also remember that if you are late this will have an impact on the other patients who are waiting. If you no longer require your appointment please contact reception to cancel it—this allows it to be offered to someone else.
We try to run to time but we have no way of knowing in advance what will be presented during a surgery – some problems do require urgent attention which may affect the waiting time for subsequent patients. Your understanding is appreciated.
Home Visits
Home visits are ONLY for housebound and terminally ill patients.
All other patients (including children) must come to the surgery as we have better facilities for examining and treating you there.
If you think you require a home visit please request this before 10.30am wherever possible. A Doctor may call you to discuss your request.
Emergencies
To request the assistance of the Duty Doctor contact reception (01506 836300).
In an extreme emergency consider calling an ambulance (Dial 999).
Emergency Doctor
If there are no appointments left and you feel your problem cannot wait until the next working day your request will be passed to the Emergency Doctor. This does not automatically mean you will receive an appointment but a Doctor will speak with you if an appointment cannot be offered.
The receptionist will ask you about your problem so that the Doctor can triage your request appropriately.
If the Doctor feels that you need to be seen on that day then you will be offered an urgent appointment which will be at a time determined by the Doctor according to the current demand. As this is an urgent service an alternative time cannot be requested.
Please be advised that the Emergency Doctor does NOT deal with the following:
1. Repeat prescription requests
2. Sick line requests
3. Ongoing issues for which you are seeing a regular GP
4. It is not for discussing results
Please Help Us To Help You…
Our phone lines tend to be busiest first thing in the morning.
For house call requests and appointment requests it is helpful if you contact us as soon as possible. For non-urgent problems you may find it easier to contact the Practice in the late morning or early afternoon.
To help reduce pressure on the main line, please use, when appropriate, the Prescription Line and Results Line advertised in this leaflet.
You can find out more information by reading through the links below:
