APPOINTMENTS

We offer a range of different appointments to cater for all of our patients. When you call the surgery to make an appointment, our receptionists will ask you to give them a brief outline of the reason for your appointment in order to enable them to direct you to the most appropriate clinician. They are not being ‘nosey’ – they are simply trying to ensure you are seen as quickly as possible by the most appropriate person and are working to guidelines and protocols specified by the GPs. We greatly appreciate your help with this and ask for your continued support to enable the most efficient use of our resources. For further information, please refer to our 'How can we help' leaflet.

We do of course understand and are respectful of the cases where you may not feel able to discuss your problem with the receptionist.

You can book an appointment by calling the surgery on [new surgery number], or by using our online booking service. Click here to book an online appointment or register for the service.

TYPES OF APPOINTMENTS

Calder Suite Appointments:

A team of nurse practitioners and GP’s continue to work in our newly refurbished annex to provide on the day care for new episodes of illness. This includes problems such as dermatology, musculo-skeletal (including back pain), gynaecology, ENT, chest infections, abdominal pain. Please give the receptionist as much information as possible to ensure you are booked an appropriate appointment. Please telephone before 11.00 am for a Calder Suite appointment.

Same Day GP Appointments:

These appointments are available to be booked on the day for either new episodes of care that are not suitable to be seen in the Calder Suite or that require ongoing follow up from a GP. These will be available with each GP working that day. You will be able to request the doctor of your choice for a Same Day GP appointment and we will accommodate this as far as possible, although obviously once a doctor is fully booked you may need to ring back another day or see a different doctor.

Urgent Problems:

For problems that require possible urgent same day attention, hospital admission or emergency referral please let the receptionist know so that we can ensure you are seen or given appropriate clinical advice that day.

Routine Appointments:

Routine appointments are available to pre-book up to two weeks in advance. 8.15am appointments are available on a Friday morning for patients who work. Late appointments are also available on a Monday for patients who work and find it difficult to come during normal working hours.

Telephone Options:

We have available telephone appointments on the same day for minor ailments that our clinical pharmacy team are able to manage. We have a call back within 24 hour option for medication queries and routine follow phone slots with specific GP’s. If you feel that your current problem could be dealt with over the phone please inform the receptionist.

Online appointments:

We provide a selection of appointments for patients to book via the online access. If you would like to register for online access, please ask at reception.

Visits:

Patients who require a home visit will be contacted by one of the doctors or nurses to arrange this. Not all visits need to be done on the day of the request and it will help the doctors to spread these out over the working week where appropriate. Currently we can get up to 20 visit requests on a Monday but we may only get 6 mid-week. Please contact reception before 10.00 am in the usual way to request a visit and a doctor or nurse will ring you back to discuss this.

Please remember, it is important that you are able to give the reception staff some indication of your problem so that they can ensure they direct you to the right type of appointment. They are not being ‘nosey’! They are simply trying to ensure you are seen as quickly as possible by the most appropriate person. Please help them to help you.

Appointment Reminders

We send appointment reminders via text message to those who have mobile numbers on their record. We also utilise the text message service for the Family and Friends test but you will not receive a request for feedback more than once in a 30 day period.

Cancelling Appointments

Previously, being able to book four weeks in advance has given rise to an increase in the number of patients failing to attend their appointment.  We do ask therefore that you do please cancel an appointment as far in advance as possible if you no longer require it. Those patients who have registered for text reminders for their appointments, can cancel their appointment by responding to the text reminder.  If you would like to utilise this service, please check with one of our receptionists to ensure we have your up to date mobile telephone number, or you can update your details online if you are registered for Patient Access.