booking & cancelling Appointments

Who do I see?

There are a number of different types of clinical staff available at this practice - GPs, Practice Nurses and Health Care Assistants and we appreciate it is not always clear who does what and when you need to see whom. The picture is clouded further by some PCT community staff also being based in this building - Health Visitors, District Nurses and Midwives, for example.

Our Receptionists are trained to signpost you to the most appropriate appointment to meet your need and, in order to do this, they may need to ask you to give a brief indication of the nature of that need 

How to make an appointment

We've recently changed our appointment system to bring in more pre-bookable GP appointments (ie appointments you can book up to 2 weeks in advance) and we've introduced on-line GP booking. We anticipate that these changes will help to reduce the previous 'bottleneck' on the phone lines at 08:30 every morning.  When you call to make an appointment, the Receptionist may need to ask you for a brief indication of the reason for your request so that she can signpost you to the quickest and best way of meeting your need. This may be a telephone appointment rather than face-to-face - or perhaps she can pass a message on to the doctor for you - or sometimes, she can sort your issue out without you needing to speak to the GP. All of our practice nurse appointments can be booked in advance.  Click here to view the practice opening hours and telephone numbers.

Type of appointments

Most of our GP appointments can now be booked in advance so for routine issues, these are what will be offered. However, you do not always need to see the GP for advice. Some issues are more easily sorted over the telephone and the doctors urge you to consider booking a telephone appointment for issues such as:

• medication reviews
• blood test, ultrasound or X-ray results
• medication queries
• minor ailments (except rashes)
• sick note continuation (if the GP has previously advised that they are happy to do this by phone)

Urgent (on-the-day) GP appointments are reserved for symptoms or conditions that are likely to worsen if you do not get treatment during that day and the GPs have given a check-list of relevant symptoms to the Receptionists for them to look out for. Obviously, if you feel you must be seen the same day, even if you do not have any of the conditions on the GP list, your request will be passed to the doctor on duty that day and he/she will triage your request and decide how best to meet your needs. All on-the-day requests for an appointment for a child aged 10 or less will be passed to the duty doctor.

Sometimes, if you have requested an urgent, on-the-day GP appointment, you may be asked to come to the surgery at a specific time and asked to wait until the next available GP can see you.

The practice nurses specialise in looking after patients who have been diagnosed with long term conditions (e.g. diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, COPD etc). They can also provide family planning and contraception services, smoking cessation advice, health checks, immunisations and travel vaccinations and can deal with many general health questions and minor ailments.

How many appointments are available and how long is each appointment?

Each doctor has around 30 appointments available on a full day. Most GP appointments are 10 minutes long but some of the urgent on-the-day appointments may be shorter, especially if demand is high.

Practice Nurse Appointments & clinics

Not all nurses are trained to be able to manage all conditions. Some of the specialised clinics (e.g. anticoagulation) are only available after discussion with the nurse or doctor.  

How to cancel an appointment

If you wish to cancel an appointment then please telephone us on 842577 as soon as you are aware the appointment is no longer needed as there may be another patient who may need to see a GP. Click here for practice telephone numbers. The practice currently loses an average of 35 appointment slots per week because patients did not attend and did not notify us. We are keen to reduce this. Watch out for regular updates on this figure on the waiting room notice boards or click here to view the statistics in the performance and development section