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:

We run a total triage system for all new GP appointments. Patients must complete an online form or a Receptionist can do this for them. The GPs triage the requests and allocate appointments accordingly.

Some appointments are assigned directly to face to face appointments and some are assigned to telephone consultations, after which the GP may decide to bring the patient to a face-to-face appointment if appropriate/necessary.

All other appointments can be booked directly via Reception: follow-up GP appointments, blood tests, cervical screening, medication reviews etc

We do not hold specific clinics for chronic diseases; appointments are made with the relevant health care professional on an ad hoc basis following the appointment guide overleaf.

We run a recall system to invite patients on chronic disease registers to attend for annual reviews. We call these review appointments ‘Every Contact Counts’ (ECC).

Nurse appointments can be booked in advance. It is important to inform reception of the reason for your visit so that an appropriate length of time can be allocated.

Where clinically indicated, children under 5 years of age will be offered a same day appointment or telephone triage.

Patients do have a right to express a preference in respect of who they wish to see and wherever possible we will adhere to this.

Text Message Reminders and Cancellations

You can opt-in to receive appointment notifications and reminders by text if you have a mobile phone number.

You will also be able to cancel your appointment via text message.

The text messaging service is an automated service and is not manned by a member of staff.

Please ensure that your personal details are kept up to date for our records. If any of your details change please let us know straightaway by completing our Change of Personal Details form, as we may need to contact you urgently.

Cancelling an Appointment

If you are unable to keep an appointment, please let us know by completing our Cancel an Appointment form as soon as possible – this may enable someone else to be seen.

If you wish to cancel your appointment via text message, please text the word CANCEL only. The message will fail if you start your text with any other word e.g. ‘please cancel’.

Ensure you cancel your appointment no later than 30 minutes before the appointment time. The system may not cancel the appointment if you do not allow this amount of time. If you wish to cancel your appointment after this time, please telephone the surgery.