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

Routine Appointments:

Routine appointments are typically for non-urgent or on-going conditions that require follow up or review. They are available to pre-book up to four 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.

One week Appointments:

These appointments are provided for symptoms you are concerned about and feel cannot wait for the next routine appointment. These would suit problems such as joint and back, skin, tiredness, headaches/migraine, coughs/colds that are not improving, medication issues/concerns.

24 hour Appointments:

These would be for acute problems that don’t need same day attention but need to be seen within a day or two.

Urgent Care Appointments:

Our Urgent Care Team consisting of a GP, a Nurse Practitioner and a Pharmacist work in the Calder Suite each day specifically dealing with urgent medical problems that require same day medical advice and treatment.  PLEASE NOTE this is NOT a walk in service and you must first telephone the surgery if you feel you need to be seen the same day.

Visits:

Patients who require a home visit will be contacted by one of the clinicians 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.

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 90 day period. If you have access to the MyGP app or Patient Access, you will also receive appointment reminders via these services. A text message service is also available through these options.

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.