Appointments

Appointments System Overview

The surgery offers three types of GP appointments:

1. Advanced booking appointments which can be booked up to six weeks ahead  with a choice of doctor (if they are available).
2. Appointments 48 hours in advance (if available).
3. Contact with a Doctor on the telephone if you need to be seen on the day you contact the surgery. This may then be followed up with an appointment later that same day or the next day, if required.

How to Book an Appointment

You can now ring any time during our opening hours to make an appointment for a non-urgent visit to the doctor; a review of your existing condition, medication review etc.

You can still ring on the day for contact with a Doctor who will ring you back. 

Triaging by the Duty Doctor

If you request contact with a Doctor on the day you telephone/visit the surgery, you will be offered a “doctor triaging service”.

The duty doctor will ring you back and discuss the best way forward with you.

They will either be able to help you over the phone or will book an appointment for you to see a Doctor face to face at the surgery. 

Depending on the Doctors assessments of your needs this appointment may be at some point on that same day or the following day.

Home Visits

Think you need a Home Visit?

Ring before 10.30am if at all possible to request a visit at home.

The receptionist will take the details and the duty doctor will ring you to "triage" your request.

Outside of these hours, home visits remain the responsibility of the out of hours provider.

Doctor Availability

Please understand that all doctors work as the “duty doctor” on a rota system and sometimes are not available for routine consultations.  Some doctors do other clinics such as Family Planning and Minor operations, and some doctors work on a part-time basis, therefore, they can be unavailable for routine appointments.

Reception staff manage the system as per the instructions of the doctors.  If there are no appointments available to pre-book, they cannot book you in, but if you have a problem which you feel needs attention that same day, you will always be offered contact with the Duty Doctor.

All other appointments are pre-booked; antenatal and minor surgery appointments. Nurse appointments are also pre-booked including blood tests.

The surgery will always meet the government access targets of a patient being able to see a GP within 48 hours and a health care professional within 24 hours.

Doctors Surgeries

Each Doctor has a half-day per week.  These are usually: 

Dr Graham (female) does not usually work on a Tuesday afternoon or on a Wednesday.

Dr Poggi (female) works every day except a Thursday.

Dr Dasari (female)  works 9 sessions per week and has a half day on a Friday afternoon.  

The appointments system to our 15,500 patients.

Doctor Appointments

Patients are able to request to see the GP of their choice.  Patients may wish to see a particular practitioner for the purposes of continuing care, gender, or ethnicity. 

It is a legal right of every patient to be able to request a particular GP, but they may have to wait a little longer to see them.    The Practice cannot force a patient to see a GP they do not wish to see.  The patient may be asked to accept an alternative if, for example the service required was now being provided by another Health Professional in the Practice.

All Doctor appointments are ten minutes long.  If an appointment is required for a greater length of time the patient will have to discuss this with a Doctor, as it is only the GP who can authorise booking an appointment for longer than the standard ten minutes.

The Appointments System

The surgery system for booking appointments is constructed to try to meet the needs of all patients.  

We offer approximately 40,000 doctor appointments per year plus 8,000 for long term conditions, 12,500 in the treatment room and for taking blood, 5,500 for contraception/family planning and cervical smears to our 15,500 patients.  We try to manage these in the best way, for the benefit of all our patients, those who have ongoing medical conditions, those who have an acute illness who need to be seen on the same day by either a nurse or a doctor, and those who need a follow up appointment of an acute illness.

We are constantly reviewing and revising our appointment system to try and improve access for our patients.