Making Appointments

Appointments can be made by ringing 01244 351000, or by calling at the Medical Centre between 8.00am and 6.30pm.

Pre-Bookable Appointments:

GP appointments are available to pre-book 2 weeks in advance and Nurse appointments are available 4 weeks in advance. Pre-bookable appointments can also be made for telephone advice.

Day Release Appointments:

If there are no available pre-bookable appointments, we have appointments released each day at 8.00am.  To obtain a day release appointment you need to ring the surgery from 8.00am onwards.

NB  All our GP appointments are 10 minute consultations, if you have more than one issue, please ask for a double appointment.

You may see the doctor of your choice but try to keep to the same doctor for a single period of illness.  However, please be aware that you may be offered an appointment with a different GP due to availability.  Please be assured that all Clinicians will have up-to-date information of your medical history with our clinical system EMIS Web. 

Booking and Cancelling appointments on-line

We are pleased to announce that it is now possible to book and cancel appointments on-line. This facility has only been introduced from the beginning of June 2011 and we hope that it will make accessing our services easier for our patients.

In order to be able to use this facility you will need to attend the surgery to register your interest and be issued with a PIN number to allow you access. You will need to attend the surgery and it is important that you bring some form of indentification with you as we will not be able to issue a PIN number without that.

Chaperones

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present during any consultation, examination or test where they feel one is required. Sometimes you may wish to be accompanied by a family member or friend. Other times you may wish to have a formal chaperone present, i.e. a trained member of the practice team. Wherever possible please make this request at the time of booking your appointment so that the necessary arrangements can be made. Whilst we will always do our best to provide a chaperone when requested, this may sometimes require us to re-book your appointment for a time when one is present.

On occasions your GP or nurse may require a chaperone to be present, this is in accordance with our chaperone policy.

Home Visits

If you are too ill to attend surgery then please telephone 01244 351000 before 10-30am. State clearly the name and address of the patient and describe the symptoms. This helps the doctors to decide the urgency of the calls and plan their rounds.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Health Centre.