Appointments

All appointments are booked in relation to clinical need. Our staff may ask for details of your symptoms to help identify the most appropriate person for you to see. We have a range of appointments available across our multidisciplinary team and our staff will signpost you to the most clinically relevant person.

We will try always to accommodate the GP of your choice though the GP may be unavailable.

Appointments are also available on the NHS APP, see the NHS app page for details.

The fastest way to make an appointment is through our online patient request portal. 

The portal can be accessed by clicking the green Patient Online Requests button found to the right hand side of the home screen.

Patients are still able to contact the Surgery by phone on 01709 375500.

Patients can book appointments throughout the day and patients are encouraged to call at any time our phone lines are open – there is no requirement to call at 8am as soon as our phone lines are open. Patients will experience shorter waiting times by calling after 9am

If for any reason we have to cancel your appointment we will try to let you know in good time, if we have to cancel at short notice we will ring or text you to advise you. To help us contact you in situations like this please ensure your home and mobile phone numbers are up to date on our system. Thank you

If you would like us to remind you of future appointments please make sure we have your current mobile number on our system, you should then receive a message the day before reminding you of your appointment time. This message will give you the option to cancel to ensure appointments aren’t wasted if you no longer need them.

Telephone Triage

Not every patient needs to be seen for their condition, sometimes a telephone call from the appropriate clinician will be sufficient.

If you think your problem can be resolved over the phone, discuss it first with our receptionists and they will guide you to the most suitable appointment.

Care Navigation

A member of our reception team will ask for a brief outline of your problem when you call to make an appointment at the practice. This isn’t because our reception staff are nosy but it’s an NHS England approach that we call care navigation.

Through specialist training, our team can now offer more choice on who to see in the practice and help you get to the right health professional fast. Our receptionists never offer clinical advice or triage; this is about offering you the choice to see other specialists in our practice team if they have the expertise to deal with your problem; often quicker and without the need to see the GP each time.

For example, we often get calls that can be dealt with by a physiotherapist, the pharmacist, sometimes even the secretaries, that you may not be aware of if you haven’t visited the practice in a while.

By working this way, it helps us to free up time for GPs to care for our patients with complex or serious health conditions. More importantly though, it means you are seen by the clinician that is best placed to deal with your problem each time you visit us. The choice is up to you.

Agencies involved

• Pharmacies
• Talking therapies (counsellors etc)
• Midwifery
• Contraception and Sexual Health
• Physiotherapy
• Smoking Cessation

It would help the team to help you if you were to inform the receptionist why you need an appointment to see a GP.