Urgent appointment requests
Urgent cases are dealt with by the on call clinicians.
All requests should be submitted online via Anima, and urgent cases will be flagged by the system. You will be asked to provide details of your urgent concern as this assists the clinicians in assessing the urgency of your case.
Please make sure reception have an up-to-date contact number. You may be given a telephone, video, or face-to-face consultation with a clinician either that day or at a later mutually agreed time (perhaps after further tests have been undertaken) or management of the problem by another member of the clinical team, e.g. our highly trained practice nurses.
Pre-bookable appointments
Pre-bookable appointments can be made up to 2 weeks in advance by submitting an online request.
The practice will occasionally request your attendance for appointments with one of our practice nurses, health care assistants, pharmacist or pharmacy technicians, GP assistant physiotherapist, or social prescriber.
Appointments with the practice nurse can include long term condition reviews such as asthma or diabetes, contraception, injections, and immunisations.
Health care assistant and GP assistant roles include appointments such as blood tests, blood pressure checks, health checks, dressings, and ECGs.
Our pharmacy team will conduct medication reviews and medicines optimisation, helping to improve patient safety, as well as provide monitoring for conditions including high blood pressure.
The first contact physiotherapist can assess and diagnose musculoskeletal problems, give advice on how to manage conditions, and refer patients on to specialist services if necessary.
A social prescriber can help support those suffering loneliness or isolation, have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing, or those needing support for low level mental health issues.
Cancelling or changing an appointment
If for any reason you are unable to attend your appointment, please let the surgery know as soon as possible so it can be made available for another patient.
To cancel your appointment by:
- logging in to your Anima account and viewing your appointments
- replying to your appointment reminder text message
- logging in to your SystmOnline account and viewing your appointments
- using our online cancel an appointment form
- phoning us on 01621 816475 during our opening times
Your appointment
We may offer you a consultation:
- by phone
- face to face at the surgery
- on a video call
- by text or email
Appointments by phone, video call or by text or email can be more flexible and often means you get help sooner.
If you need help when we are closed
Between 6:30pm and 8am, Monday to Friday, and all day at weekends and bank holidays, normal out of hours cover arrangements will apply. Calls to the practice will be redirected to the NHS 111 Service.
If you have a medical problem that cannot wait until the practice reopens you are advised to dial 111 and this will connect you with the out of hours arrangements for the area. The level of service will be similar to that on a normal weekend or evening.
Call 999 in an emergency. Chest pains and / or shortness of breath constitute an emergency.
If you need help with your appointment
Please inform us:
- if there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to respond
- if you would prefer to consult with the doctor or nurse by phone, face-to-face, by video call or by text or email
- if you need an interpreter
- if you have any other access or communication needs
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 are currently housebound and do require a home visit, please book in for a telephone consultation to discuss the requirement for a home visit with a clinician. You can request this via Anima.
A clinician 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 clinician to schedule house calls. We cannot provide home visits for those patients who have issues with arranging travel.
Results
Blood test results are available to view online.
To view your results:
- use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App) or SystmOnline
- use the corresponding Anima form
If the doctor has requested a discussion with you regarding your result, a team member will book you in accordingly.