Appointments

Before requesting an appointment with one of our clinicians, it may be worth looking at our self-referrals page to check if a surgery appointment is needed for the service you require.

How to request an appointment

You can request an appointment in the following ways:

You will be asked to give a brief description of your condition to ascertain the urgency of your request.  The care navigators (reception team) work from a guidance sheet that is created by the doctors.

Depending on the nature of your call you will be offered a telephone call from one of our minor illness nurses who will call you back from 08:00 onwards only once to discuss your problem. You will then be advised appropriately depending on the nature of your condition and clinical need.

Telephone consultations

For all telephone consultations booked with the minor illness nurse, patients will be asked to give an up-to-date landline or mobile telephone number so that the minor illness nurse can return your call this day.  Patients are advised to call as early as possible for urgent appointments only.  We strongly advise that you are available to receive a call from our clinician soon after.

Please book well in advance for routine appointments.  Antenatal, postnatal and surgical procedures need longer appointments. If you are booking appointments online, please look at our services and duration needed for a particular problem/procedure before booking this appointment. Do ask the receptionist if you are uncertain.  Please wear loose clothing.  Please inform reception if you would like a chaperone.

Pre-bookable appointments

You can book a non-urgent telephone appointment up to 28 days in advance. As you are aware your preferred doctor may be very popular and their appointments get booked in advance. Our advice is that you give plenty of notice if you wish to see your preferred doctor and book appointments in advance.

Urgent appointments

Each morning at 08:00 we release urgent on the day appointments for patients who have genuinely urgent medical conditions. We have up to 2 people answering the telephones at 08:00, and from 08:30 patients can also walk-in to request an urgent appointment for sometime that day at the reception desk.  Please be patient with us.

Appointment reminder service

An appointment reminder service is now in place to confirm your appointment at the surgery by SMS text message to your mobile phone.  This is to help patients remember and reduce the amount of ‘did not attend’ appointments which are wasted.

To receive SMS text messages for appointment reminders and your healthcare, please inform us if you wish to opt out of this service.

If you have recently changed your contact details, such as a name, address or telephone number(s), please complete our Change of Personal Details Form.

Please speak to the reception team if you want to give consent in writing for a family member, carer or a third party to receive or give any confidential messages.

Cancelling appointments

If you are unable to keep an appointment please let us know using our Cancel An Appointment triage as soon as possible, this may enable someone else to be seen.