Appointments

To make one, please telephone the surgery or call in.

Booking an Appointment 

Reception staff will ask you for a brief reason for contacting the practice. The reason behind this is so that reception staff can book or signpost you to the most appropriate person.  All information provided is dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

We offer a selection of both on the day and pre-bookable Face to Face and telephone appointments with the doctors. 

If you wish to make an appointment we ask that you call us early in the day.  The receptionist will normally offer you the choice of a pre-bookable consultation, should you feel it is more urgent our reception team will discuss your query with our ‘On Call’ GP who will determine if one of our reserved book on the day appointments is necessary for you.

Our practice nurse appointments are all bookable in advance and also offer telephone consultations for certain conditions. We send out pre-arranged appointments for those patients who have chronic conditions managed by the Surgery. If the appointment is not suitable please contact the Surgery to re-arrange or cancel it.

You may consult with any doctor within the Practice by ringing Reception and making an appointment.  When following up on a problem, it is strongly advised that you try to consult with the same doctor.

General points for all appointments:

• One appointment – one patient – please do not ask the doctor or nurse to see other members of your family during your appointment.
• Please remember that the doctor is unlikely to be able to deal with multiple problems at one appointment.  The doctor is likely to ask you to make another appointment if you wish to discuss multiple unrelated issues. 
• If you are unable to manage your appointment, please ring up to cancel it, thereby freeing it for somebody else.
• If you are attending an appointment at the Practice, please always make sure that the receptionist is aware that you are in the waiting room.
• In addition, the doctors may ask you to call the Practice in a specified number of weeks to provide an update, perhaps to discuss a response to medication or recovery from illness or surgery. Should you just wish to leave a message for the doctor please advise the receptionist and this will be passed on.

Home Visits

Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and facilities available, we do appreciate this is not always possible. In this respect, if you do need a home visit, you can help us by calling reception before 10:00 hours

You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed. Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls

You can also be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.

Sickness Certificates

You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. Your employer may however require you to complete a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website.

Evidence that you are sick

If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to give them some form of medical evidence to support payment of SSP (statutory sick pay).

It is up to your employer to decide whether you are incapable of work. A medical certificate, now called a 'Statement of Fitness for Work’ (see below) from your doctor is strong evidence that you are sick and would normally be accepted, unless there is evidence to prove otherwise.

You could also provide evidence from someone who is not a medical practitioner, e.g. a dentist. Your employer will decide whether or not this evidence is acceptable. If your employer has any doubts, they may still ask for a medical certificate from your GP.

Statement of Fitness for Work - ’Fit Note'

The 'fit note' was introduced on 6 April 2010. With your employer's support, the note will help you return to work sooner by providing more information about the effects of your illness or injury.

For more information see the DirectGov website (where this information was sourced)

A message from the Doctors

We know that patients are waiting longer for an appointment than they previously had to. We are aware this is causing a degree of frustration. There are many reasons for this. The practice list size (the number of patients we have) has increased by more than 10% in the past 7 years, and continues to increase, this means there are more patients looking for appointments. Patient demand to see a GP has also increased significantly. We have an increasing elderly population with an associated increase in frailness and multi morbidity (lots of problems). Many of our patients are presenting with more complex issues that often require longer and more frequent appointments. Many medical problems that were previously managed in the hospital are now being managed in general practice.

As a practice we have seen a significant increase in both workload and patient demand since the Covid-19 pandemic, as has been seen by GP practices across the country.  The cause of this is complex including a significant increase in hospital waiting times. As a direct result, many patients are requiring more input from the primary care team whilst they wait.

To try to help manage the equity of appointments and in conjunction with our GP contract, the reception team will ask a few questions about your requirements. You may be signposted to another source rather than a GP. This is because there may be another professional better suited to helping you. It also means that if your presentation is not urgent, you may need to wait a little longer for a routine appointment. If something is not urgent, it is safe to wait a little longer and you can always phone back if things are getting worse.

We want you to know that the whole team are working very hard to ensure we continue to deliver the highest standards of care within our practice.

Whilst we understand the wait for a routine appointment is a frustration, our waiting times are generally shorter than most practices both locally and nationally. Please be reassured that we have adequate capacity to see urgent problems on a daily basis. If you need to be seen for something which is medically urgent, then you will be.

If for any reason you no longer require, or cannot make your appointment, then please phone to cancel. Last month the number of missed GP appointments was equivalent to a full day of GP consulting. These appointments could have been used for other patients, helping to bring down the waiting time.

Finally, our reception team are working very hard behind the scenes, and are always doing their best to help you. Please treat them with respect, even if you are feeling frustrated.  We are working together to deliver the highest standards of Primary Care with the resources available to us.

Dr’s Hewitt, Charles, Jack and Evans