Appointments

We endeavour to provide all our patients with an appointment to have most appropriate contact with the most appropriate clinician (GP or a Clinical Practitioner or other newly established additional roles in General Practice such as a First Contact Physiotherapist, a Clinical Pharmacist, First contact Mental Health Practitioner, Physician Associate, Paramedic) within a 2 week period.

In most situations, all above practitioners are skilled to be able to offer initial assessments and either seek advice from the GP if needed or organise for a second opinion by a GP.

Our Care Navigation Programme provides tailored training for your staff to signpost people to local community resources, empowering them to manage their personal needs and reducing their reliance on GPs. The three main aims of the programme are to:

• Reduce unnecessary GP appointments
• Increase patient wellbeing
• Maximise resources already in the system

Care Navigation is a tried and tested model of care that improves access to primary care services for patients and reduces GP pressures all in one. It allows front line staff to provide patients with more information about local health and wellbeing services, both within and outside of primary care, in a safe, effective way.

Watch this video: Focus on Receptionists and Care Navigators

Appointments can be made by phone or in person at the reception desk or online. You can speak or see the clinician of your choice but on occasions when it is not possible, another clinician will always be available for consultations.

Please remember that our GP appointment times are ONLY 10 minutes long. Therefore, if you have a long list of problems it may not be possible to deal with all of them in one consultation. If you have more than one problem to discuss with the doctor, please make a double appointment.

These appointments are released daily to be booked at 08:00 every day on a “Acute Needs” basis. The reception team will need some details from you to book you into an appointment at the shortest length of time.

All patients are advised to fill the AccuRx TRIAGE Questionnaire that is sent when you are booked in for a callback without fail. This will help our clinicians to prioritise caseload and also enable them to still advise you if you have been unable to answer their calls. 

Always think before requesting an urgent appointment and ask yourself, “does my problem need to be seen today or do I want it to be seen today?” Someone else may be in greater need of the appointment. If in doubt ask to speak to a doctor or a practitioner.