Appointments
How to make an appointment:
Urgent cases: All urgent cases are seen on the day.
Non-Urgent cases: If your condition is non-urgent you can expect to see a GP the same day if you ring before 10.30am. You may have to wait longer if you want to see a particular GP. You can pre-book appointments up to one week in advance.
Telephone appointments: You can book to have a telephone consultation with a GP. He or she will ring you at an agreed time on the telephone number you have given us. Telephone appointments are a convenient alternative for those problems which do not require a face to face consultation, e.g. for advice or follow up.
It is also worth noting that our senior nurse is trained in treating minor illnesses and the nurses are also able to offer contraception, HRT checks, smoking advice/prescriptions and travel vaccination advice.
Let us know if more than one person in the family needs to be seen. We can give you a longer appointment if necessary.
Our two surgeries are linked by computer so that appointments can be made from either surgery. However, due to the small capacity of the branch surgery, at 38 Warwick Avenue, it may not always be possible to obtain an appointment there on any given day because of high demand. In this case patients will be asked to attend 5 Heathville Road.
We try and enable patients to see the doctor of their choice and in most instances this will be possible. However, there may be times when you cannot obtain an appointment with your first choice of doctor because he/she is already fully booked, or away. This is not ideal but we like to think that all of our doctors and nurses will provide you with a first class service. We conduct regular and detailed patient satisfaction surveys.
We realize that no appointments system is perfect but we have found that our ability to see patients quickly is necessary and very popular and we hope that you find it helpful and convenient.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US:
1. Be on time for your appointment.
2. Tell us if you need to cancel.
3. Call for a home visit or urgent appointment before 10.00am.
4. Ring for test results between 11.30-12.30 Monday-Friday
These should only be requested by patients who are too ill to travel to the surgery. Our doctors typically see four patients in the Practice in the time it takes to do a single home visit. For this reason, we ask our patients to come to the Practice if at all possible.
We would be grateful if you could phone before 10.00am to enable the doctors to plan their rounds. Emergencies will be dealt with straight away.
Emergency Cases
In an emergency, please phone the surgery. The receptionist will contact the doctor on call.
Out of surgery hours - Between the hours of 6.30pm - 8.00am you need to ring 08454 220220. At all other times ring 01452 528299.
The doctor's surgery will not be interrupted, except in cases of emergency. You may wish to book a telephone consultation for which you can ask the receptionist to book and the doctor will call you back at a given time.
Results of tests are only given by our secretarial staff and, therefore, you will need to ring between 11.30 - 12.30 Monday - Friday and ask to speak to your doctors' secretary.
