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, as outlined in our signposting information leaflet for patients. We greatly appreciate your help with this and ask for your continued support to enable the most efficient use of our resources.
For most acute and minor illnesses, you DO NOT need to see a doctor. Our highly trained Nurse Practitioners and Pharmacists can treat a whole range of symptoms including:
- Joint and back problems
- Skin problems including rashes, eczema, moles, lesions
- Abdominal pain, constipation, heartburn
- Eye problems including conjunctivitis, itchy eyes, eye pain
- Respiratory problems including flu, cough/wheeze, laryngitis, pleuritic pain
- ENT problems including tonsillitis, earache, sinusitis, hay fever, allergies, swollen glands
- Female health – cystitis/urine infection, vaginal discharge, menstrual problems, contraception.
We greatly appreciate your help with this and ask for your continued support to enable the most efficient use of our resources. This way we will be able to provide you with the best, most flexible and most timely service.
Obviously we do understand that very occasionally something is felt to be very personal and we will respect your decision not to give the receptionist details on those occasions. We do ask, however, that this is the exception rather than the norm.
You can book an appointment by calling the surgery on 01995 607399, via Patient Access or the myGP app.
Doctorlink
We are now using Doctorlink, which enables you to check your symptoms online and be signposted to an appropriate healthcare appointment. If you require an appointment at the practice, Doctorlink will send this information to us and we will contact you to arrange.
For more information and to register please visit: https://app.doctorlink.com/garstang/register
If you have any problems with registering for this service, please contact the Doctorlink support service on 0330 111 6433 or via helpdesk@doctorlink.com.
Please note, this is an additional service. Patients can still contact the surgery via telephone to discuss symptoms and arrange appointments.
TYPES OF APPOINTMENTS
We have recently changed our appointment system to re-introduce pre-bookable, timed, GP appointments.
Routine appointments are now be available to book up to 3 weeks in advance. We also have some One week appointments for symptoms you are concerned about and feel you cannot wait for the next routine appointment; 24 hour appointments for more urgent problems, and we continue to have urgent same day appointments with our duty doctors for those who require same day medical advice and treatment.
Patients are offered a choice of a telephone or face to face consultation when booking appointments.
We continue to offer a full range of nursing services. We have been very fortunate to have been able to do this throughout the COVID vaccination campaign thanks to our dedicated team of volunteers to whom we continue to be extremely grateful.
Although lock down restrictions have been lifted, we need to continue to ensure we provide a COVID safe environment for patients and staff and this means continuing with COVID control measures within the surgery. You need to continue to wear a face mask if you are asked to come to the surgery.
Our resources are often limited due to staff sickness or self-isolation and some days we cannot safely see more patients and we would like to remind patients that Fylde and Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group commission and organise Walk in Centre services for all our patients. You can access these services at two local centres; Royal Preston Hospital Walk in Centre and Whitegate Drive Walk in Centre, Blackpool. The Walk in Centres can deal with many problems such as:
- sprains and strains
- suspected broken limbs.
- minor head injuries
- cuts and grazes
- bites and stings
- minor scalds and burns
- ear and throat infections
- skin infections and rashes
- eye problems
- coughs and colds
- high temperature in child and adults
- stomach pain
- being sick (vomiting) and diarrhoea
- emergency contraception
When our appointments are fully booked you will be advised to ring back on another day, or to go to a local Walk in Centre. We hope signposting patients to Walk in Centres proves a positive and efficient way for you to access good quality healthcare in a local setting. By doing so, you are helping us to provide robust GP service for groups of patients whose healthcare needs make them more vulnerable e.g., the elderly, young children, pregnant women, and patients with a palliative condition.
We would also like to remind patients of simple self-care measures which should be tried prior to accessing our services. Please view our Self Care page for more details.
Or you can visit
The NHS website - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Cancelling Appointments
If you no longer require your appointment, we respectfully request that you cancel it as far in advance as possible so the appointment can be provided to another patient. You can cancel your appointments via Patient Access or the myGP app, by responding 'cancel' to a text reminder, or by calling reception on 01995 607399 - please press option 1 for the Surgery then option 4 for the Appointment cancellation voicemail.
