Practice Appointments

• Call us on the normal main telephone number:  01642 746800 and ask to make an appointment.
• Our Receptionist will ask you for your name and your contact number.  If you need to speak to the Doctor urgently because it’s an emergency, please state this straight away.
• You will be asked by our Receptionist to give a brief description of what your health problem is; you don’t have to give this information if you prefer not to, but if you do it will help the Doctor to prioritise calls and decide in which order you will be called back.
• If your condition can be dealt with by one of our Advanced Practitioners then you will be given an appointment with one of them if appropriate.  The Advanced Practitioners are qualified Nurse Practitioners and can diagnose, treat and prescribe as necessary for minor illness and injuries.
• If you want to speak to a specific Doctor, please tell our Receptionist and wherever possible they will arrange this for you.
• The Doctor will call you back as soon as they can and you can talk to that Doctor about your health problem in the same way you would do if you came to the surgery for a face-to-face consultation.  If you want the Doctor to phone you back between a certain time, tell us and where possible we will arrange that.
• If the Doctor thinks that you need to come into the surgery to be seen, or if you would still like to come in, the Doctor will make an appointment for you.
• Appointments for the Practice Nurses, Health Care Assistant, Phlebotomist, Midwife etc. can all be made in the normal way by contacting our reception team by telephone or in person.

Home Visits

If you are too ill to come to the surgery and you require a visit at home, please call the surgery before 10am.  the doctor, or advanced practitioner, may phone you before visiting. This is to assess the urgency of the visit and to try and prioritise visiting.  For this reason it is very important that you leave a contact number when requesting a visit. Home visits take up much more of a doctor’s time than a consultation in the surgery, so if you are mobile please come into the surgery to be seen.

Our doctors availability by phone, or appointment, are as follows:

Punctuality and Late Running Surgeries

We offer a 10 minute appointment system (please bear this in mind if bringing more than one problem to the appointment). There is a computerised self-check in screen in the waiting room. If you are unsure how to use this please do ask at the desk. This system automatically lets the doctor, or nurse, know that you have arrived. If you have not checked yourself in, the doctor will not know that you are waiting.

If you have multiple problems which you would like the doctor to address, you may be asked to make another appointment. The most pressing or urgent issues will always be dealt with first. However, rather than rush a problem and not address it properly, it may be better to come back another day.

Our commitment to you is to always start our surgeries on time. Inevitably there are some instances where a patient may have a particular need which requires more of the doctor’s time. These situations cannot be rushed and the doctor may end up running late. We make no apology for this. Remember – one day it may be your turn!

We really do appreciate your understanding and tolerance when this happens. If you cannot wait – please do let reception know. It may be that you can rebook another appointment, or the doctor may be able to phone you back later.