Appointments

GP Practice’s continues to evolve. In addition to Doctor appointments we have a range of other Health Professionals that offer appointments at the surgery. We would be grateful if you could review the other options that are available to see if one of these appointments could be used to resolve your issue:

• Advanced Nurse Practitioner
• Physiotherapist
• Clinical Pharmacist
• HCA (Healthcare Assistant)
• Practice Nurse
• Social Prescriber

APPOINTMENTS

Our telephone lines open from 8:00am, please call 01268 209309 to book an appointment with a Nurse, HCA, Physiotherapist, Phlebotomist or Clinical Pharmacist.

If you require a GP consultation, please complete an online triage form known as ANIMA. The link for this is on our home page in a purple box.   All requests will be triaged by a clinician within 24 hours, allocated to an appropriate member of staff, and actioned. If an appointment is required, this will be arranged.

If you are housebound and require a home visit, please also submit your request via the online triage form, preferably before 12 noon.

This service is strictly for housebound patients only and will be reviewed by a doctor before a visit is confirmed. Same day visits are NOT guaranteed. This will be decided by the doctor at review.

If you are digitally excluded for any reason meaning you cannot use the online form, our care navigation team on reception can complete the form for you over the phone. We also have an iPad in reception which you are welcome to use.

We offer Saturday appointments for Doctor/Nurses in the Audley Mills Education Centre but these may not be with one of the Doctors/Nurses from this Surgery.  Weekend appointments need to be booked through reception.

No appointments will be booked following an email request.

Appointments are ALWAYS in great demand so please cancel your appointment if you no longer require it. You can cancel online (if you booked it this way) or by texting us on: 07902199337 (leaving your details) or by telephoning or calling into the surgery.

ANIMA

 This service allows patients to raise both clinical and non-clinical requests including requesting a GP appointment.

Requests will be triaged by a clinician, allocated to an appropriate member of staff, and actioned. If an appointment is required, this will either be booked or a link sent via reception.

We aim to respond to all requests on the same day, however there may be occasions where demand is high or staffing levels low in which case you may not get a response to a routine query until the following day.

We will, as always, do our best to avoid this happening. If you feel it cannot wait, then we would advise you to contact 111 or attend A&E.

If you do not have access to the internet or struggle to use it, if you have a language barrier, a disability, impaired sight, are in mental health crisis or are neurodivergent then our care navigation team on reception can assist you or even complete the form for you over the phone or in person.  We also have an iPad in reception which you are welcome to use.   Our team are all trained to help and advise if you have any difficulties using this new system.

The aim of Total digital triage is to help avoid the “8am rush” as well as ensuring patients are seen by the appropriate clinician in the right place at the right time, therefore improving patient care and experience.

NHS England supports the use of online consultations and have set out new guidelines in the GP contract we hold with them. This approach has been introduced to help ease the significant strain that GP Practices are under with the ever-increasing demand for appointments.

We have been using this system for routine requests over the past 3 months, and it has been working well. As it is now being extended to all appointments, there may be some initial teething problems. If you experience any issues, please let us know so we can address them as we work through this change together. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this transition and hope this will become a successful and effective way for patients to communicate with the surgery.

If following a consultation with a health care professional you feel you want to question or disagree with the advice you have been given. Please in the first place arrange to speak with that clinician to address the issue. We are aware that we do not always get things right and would value the chance to discuss you concerns. If you do not wish to speak with the same professional, you can arrange to gain a second opinion by seeking to discuss the issue with a alternative GP.