Appointments

The surgery operates an appointments system for both doctor and nurse consultations on weekdays.

Our routine appointments are mixture of face to face appointments and a telephone appointments. If the Doctor feels that examination is clinically necessary following your telephone appointment you will be invited to attend.

To book an appointment please call us on 01277 283180 option 2. 

Patients have a right to request an appointment with a specific doctor. However, experience has shown that if you wish to speak/see a specific doctor this may involve a delay. Patients should note we have a mix of full-time and part-time GPs.

Patients requesting a same-day appointment, which should be for urgent medical problems only will be seen by the duty doctor. On days when there is a high demand for this type of consultation there may be a considerable wait, which is unavoidable. For this reason we ask you to consider carefully before using this option.

Please note that an appointment allows sufficient time to deal with one health issue only and that it may be necessary to ask you to book another appointment if the time needs to be extended.

Please inform reception or cancel online if you are unable to keep an appointment.

Online Appointments

The SystmOnline service allows you to book your appointments online. To use this service you will need to register as follows:

• Come to the surgery with 2 forms of identification
• First photo based (e.g. drivers licence/passport)
• Second confirmation of address (less than 3 months old)
• Examples: bank statement, utility bill, council tax bill
• We will then provide a letter with your user name and password

You can only make one routine appointment at a time via the internet booking facility. It is not until this appointment has been attended or cancelled that you can book another appointment. If you need to make more than one appointment you will need to ring the surgery.

If you have been issued or have an existing user name and password:

• Login to Systmonline here

• This will enable you to activate or use this facility for appointments and repeat prescriptions

Important Information: Proxy Access for Children

Patients aged 16 and over must apply for this registration form in person. Applications can not be made for anyone other than yourself unless the patient is under 12 years of age and you are the patient's parent or legal guardian. In this case an application form will be issued but you will need to remember to log in using the child's SystmOne online details if you are making an appointment or requesting a prescription on their behalf.

On the child’s 12th birthday, GP computer systems will automatically restrict the scope of existing proxy access. Parental proxy access may be reinstated if, after discussion with the parent(s) requesting access, the child’s GP believes that proxy access would be in the child’s best interest.

Cancelling or changing an appointment

If you can not make your appointment let us know as soon as you can so another patient can book the appointment time. You can cancel your appointment online but if you prefer to make changes then: 

• Phone us. Check our opening times
• Visit the surgery and speak with a receptionist. Check our opening times

Missed appointments or Did Not Attend (DNA) information.

If you need help when we are closed

• Use NHS 111 online (111.nhs.uk) or call 111. 
• Out of hours information
• If it’s a life-threatening emergency call 999.

Try the NHS App

You can now use the NHS App, a simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services and your GP account on your smartphone or tablet.

You can use the NHS App to check your symptoms and get instant advice, order repeat prescriptions, view your GP medical record and more.

If you already use online access you can continue to use it. You can use the NHS App as well.

For more information go to www.nhs.uk/nhsapp

Home Visits

Requests for a home visit should be made before 10.00am unless an emergency arises later in the day.

Home visits cannot be pre-booked and, since they are shared between available doctors, it is not possible for you to choose the doctor who will undertake a visit. Please not that sometimes visit are carried out by a Home Visiting team on our behalf.

You are able to book home visit by telephoning the surgery only. The receptionist will need as much information as possible to enable the doctor to prioritise requests. A decision to visit remains at the doctor's discretion and is based on their assessment of medical necessity. On some occasions we may provide a telephone consultation/advice as an alternative.

A patient without his or her own means of transport should make every effort to attend the surgery by whatever means as transport problems are not an acceptable reason for requesting a home visit.

We understand that it is not always easy to decide whether it is appropriate to ask for a doctor to visit at home or whether the consultation should take place at the surgery - the following guidelines may be of assistance:

GP visit recommended

• The terminally ill
• Truly bed-bound patients.

GP to be immediately informed, a visit considered, and/or an emergency ambulance called

• Severe chest pain
• Severe shortage of breath
• Severe haemorrhage

GP visit not usual

• Common symptoms of childhood - fevers, cold, cough, earache, headache, diarrhoea and most cases of abdominal pain
• Adults with common problems - influenza, back pain, abdominal pain etc.
• Common problems in the elderly - poor mobility, joint pain, general malaise etc.