Care Navigation
We actively signposting as part of the Care Navigation initiative which encourages people to use more appropriate health care providers depending on the problem.
These include minor injury departments, pharmacists and opticians, however we are still offering the same number of appointments for those who need a doctor, nurse or health care assistant for their problem. The hope is that this will free up some more appointments at the surgery and offer you, the patient, more freedom to assess timely and appropriate advice and treatment.
The reception staff will ask you the nature of the problem and direct you based on your reply.
This initiative is in its infancy but should improve the speed at which you can receive treatment, but this may not be at the doctors surgery as it has historically been.
As ever, we ask that you respect the receptionists whilst they do their job and although you may feel frustrated we will not tolerate any abuse of any kind towards our staff.
Requesting An Appointment
This is a group Partnership and you may choose to see any of the available Doctors. If you ask to speak to a specific doctor we will endeavour to comply with your request, but this might incur some delay as the doctors do not all work every day.
All consultations with the doctors are all initially telephone triaged and if necessary a face to face appointment will be made by the doctor. We offer on the day telephone triage appointments and also prebookable telephone appointments.
Once all the routine on the day appointments are taken for the day the receptionists will offer you the next available prebookable slot. However, in medical emergencies we have urgent medical telephone slots available, you will be triaged and if necessary be given a same day face to face appointment if the doctor feels you need to be examined. Children under 16 with urgent issues will be seen on the same day. The receptionist may ask what the problem is to signpost you to the most appropriate clinician.
Routine appointments to see the nurse/phlebotomist are available to be booked via telephone.
When you ring for an appointment, the reception staff will be doing their very best to give you your choice of Doctor, day and time but, as with all systems, this may not always be possible.
Once all appointments for the day have been booked, we can then only see people with an urgent problem that cannot wait until another day. If this has happened and you have an urgent problem we will offer you an appointment but will not be able to offer you a choice of time or Doctor. Your telephone call to the Doctor may be recorded.
Practice Nurse Appointments
Practice Nurse appointments can be booked up to four weeks in advance.
Our Practice Nurses have been highly trained in the monitoring of long-term conditions such as asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), diabetes, heart and vascular disease, and hypertension (raised blood pressure) and warfarin monitoring.
If you have one or more of these conditions and need a review, you can make an appointment with a Practice Nurse instead of a Doctor.
Our Practice Nurses continue to see people for:
- Monitoring and repeat prescribing of contraception and HRT
- Contraceptive advice
- Coil fitting and checks
- Emergency contraception
- Wound care
- Cervical smears
- Vaginal swabs
- Pessaries
- Travel advice and immunisation
- Immunisation (including child immunisations)
- Health checks and lifestyle advice, including weight management
- Cryotherapy (wart removal)
- Smoking Cessation Advice
- Medical reviews for:
- Diabetes
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
- Asthma
- Chronic Heart Disease (CHD)
If the Practice Nurse has concerns over your condition they will involve a GP in further assessment and changes to your management.
Health Care Assistant
The Health Care Assistant will undertake some dressings, injections, and the performance of tests such as:
- New patient medicals
- Routine ECGs
- 24-hour blood pressure tests
The surgery provides a text message service to remind patients of their appointment, you may opt out should you wish to do so. Please contact the surgery if you do not want to receive text reminders.