APPOINTMENTS ADVICE

Accessing your Doctor - how to book an appointment

Current GPs work schedules

All GPs provide daily telephone consultations and lots of queries, results of tests, requests for advice etc can be dealt with in this way. Many people don’t need to come into the surgery to be seen at all; their problem can be dealt with by telephone. This gives their Doctor more time to see those people that need appointments in the surgery.

Telephone GP consultations are bookable up to two weeks in advance either via our Online Services or you can book with our Telephone Triage Administrators. For more urgent problems, we aim for you to be able to see a GP within forty eight hours, although this may not be your own GP.

Telephone Triage Administrators telephone number: 01327 877770

When you phone to book an appointment, you will be asked by the Telephone Triage Administrators to give a brief description of what your health problem is; you don’t have to give this information if you prefer not to, but if you do it will enable you to be given the most appropriate appointment – please help them by providing any information you can.  In accordance with our usual practice, any information you provide will be treated with the strictest confidentiality.

If your condition can be dealt with by our Clinical Assessment Nurses, then you will be offered an appointment with them if appropriate.

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, it is preferable if you could request this at the time of booking.

Messages can also be left via your GP’s Secretary. Calls will not routinely be put through to the GP as this interrupts consultations with other patients.

Calls to and from the surgery are recorded and processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 and the Data Protection Act 2018. Calls are recorded for monitoring, training and dispute resolution purposes. The purpose of call recording is to provide an exact record of the call which will:

• Protect the interests of both parties

• Help improve practice performance and best practice

• Help protect practice staff from abusive or nuisance calls

• Establish the facts in the event of a complaint either by a patient or a member of staff and so assist in resolving it

• Establish the facts and assist in the resolution of any medico-legal claims made against the practice or it clinicians

• A call recording may also be used as evidence in the event that an employee’s telephone conduct is deemed unacceptable. In this situation the recording will be made available to the employee’s manager, to be investigated as per the Practice Disciplinary Policy

For further information please contact the surgery.

Please be aware that to use our Online Services you will need to collect your login details from the surgery, with proof of identification. For more information please see our Online Services Information Page.

The waiting areas at both surgeries have limited spaces so please only attend 5 minutes before your appointment time.

Cancelling an Appointment

Your can cancel your appointment in the following ways:

• Via our Online Services

Please be aware that to use our Online Services you will need to collect your login details from the surgery, with proof of identification.  For more information please see our Online Services Information Page.

• Via telephone on our cancellation line number 01327 708566 - please leave your name, date and time of the appointment you wish to cancel, along with the name of the GP/Nurse you were seeing.
• Via our Telephone Triage Administrators on telephone number 01327 877770.

Text Message Confirmations and Reminders

A text messaging service is available for confirmation and reminders of your appointments- other healthcare alerts will be added to this facility in due course. Should you wish to be included in this new service, please advise the Receptionist who will add the appropriate consent to your medical records.

In order for this to work for you, please ensure we have an up to date mobile telephone number on your records, and also be aware that it is your responsibility to advise us should you change your mobile number.

Other Appointments

We also offer the following appointments :

• Minor surgery (Dr Ono Esan, Dr Jonathan Maxwell and Dr Alexander Wennekes)
• GP diabetic clinics (Dr Sudhagar Krishnasamy and Dr Jonathan Maxwell)
• Toe nail removals (Dr Jonathan Maxwell and Dr Alexander Wennekes)
• Coils and nexplanon (Dr Victoria Cole, Dr Yasmine Darwazeh and Dr Sudhagar Krishnasamy)
• Chlamydia screening
• Private Medicals