Appointments

If you would like to request an appointment, please visit our Consulting Room.

Ways of requesting an appointment

If your doctor is not available, you may be offered an appointment with one of our nurse practitioners, a locum or one of our practice nursing team.

In an attempt to manage the increasing demand for doctor appointments, please be advised that all requests for appointments will be initially triaged by our reception staff.

Please be reassured all reception staff have received appropriate training to enable them to deal with your call most effectively.

We hope that by implementing the above, your doctor will have increased availability to see you when appropriate.

Routine appointments

A routine appointment is for ten minutes and is for one person and one problem at a time. We kindly ask that a separate appointment is requested if someone else needs to see the doctor.

If you would like a chaperone present during your consultation, then please advise the receptionist when requesting your appointment or when checking in.

If you are unsure as to whether an appointment is needed, please speak to a member of our reception team.

Telephone advice

If you feel your problem can be dealt with over the phone, such as a recurrent condition which have previously been diagnosed by the doctor, we can take your details and ask the doctor to ring you back. Please telephone before 11:00 in the morning, you will then be asked to leave your contact details as well as a brief description of the problem.

It may be appropriate for you to speak to a nurse rather than a doctor and we will discuss these options with you.

Missed appointments

If you fail to attend appointments without informing us, we may write to you asking if there are any specific problems preventing you from letting us know.

If you repeatedly fail to attend for appointments, you will be removed from the practice list and have to find an alternative GP practice.

Appointment Reminder Service

Due to an increase in the number of DNA’s we have been experiencing, we have introduced a system called Mjog to try to alleviate the problem. Mjog is an automated appointment reminder system which sends a text message to your mobile phone when you have an appointment booked.

In order to benefit from this service we will need to have an up to date mobile telephone number for you. If you have not already supplied us with this you can use our Change of Details triage and your record will be updated accordingly.

Cancelling appointments

We ask that you inform the reception staff as soon as possible if you cannot keep your appointment, as we may be able to offer it to someone else that needs to be seen. Please let us know by using our Cancel an Appointment triage.

It is our practice policy to write to patients who regularly do not keep appointments.