Appointments

Online Appointment Booking

You can ring in any morning (Monday to Friday) to speak with a GP, they will arrange further face to face appointment where necessary (if you need to speak with GP please contact as early in the day as possible).

The Practice operates a telephone first system for appointments, in which the GP will triage your call with initial telephone consultation, and if necessary will arrange a face to face consultation (If a face to face appointment is preferred please let the GP know when you ring and we will try to accomodate as best as possible).

The medical reception staff will take your call, we have asked the reception team to ask you a little about the problem you are calling about so they can note the details for a call back or direct you to the most suitable team member to help with your query. Please note once we have reached a safe capacity we will only be able to deal with urgent queries (these are queries that cannot wait to the next day), if you can ring as close to 8.30am as possible if needing urgent appointment.

If you have difficulties or impairments that may make this method difficult, please let staff know so we can try to work with you to understand how best to communicate and adapt our service to help.

Before you call please refer to our Common Ailments page to ensure that you are contacting the right place.

Why does the receptionist need to ask what’s wrong with me?

It is not a case of the receptionists being nosey!

The reception staff are members of the practice team and it has been agreed they should ask patients ‘why they need to be seen’.

Reception staff are trained to ask certain questions in order to ensure that you receive:

• the most appropriate medical care,
• from the most appropriate health professional,
• at the most appropriate time.

Receptionists are asked to collect brief information from patients:

• To help doctors prioritise house visits and phone calls
• To ensure that all patients receive the appropriate level of care
• To direct patients to see the nurse or other health professional rather than a doctor where appropriate.

Reception staff, like all members of the team, are bound by confidentiality rules

• Any information given by you is treated strictly confidential.
• The Practice would take any breach of confidentiality very seriously and deal with accordingly.
• You can ask to speak to a receptionist in private away from reception.
• However if you feel an issue is very private and do not wish to say what this is then this will be respected.

Thank you for your support