Appointments System 

• Appointments can be booked and cancelled On-Line

We now have a number of appointments that can be booked (or cancelled) on line. To use this service please complete the necessary documentation available from Reception who will then provide an Access ID and a Password.

• Pre-booked appointments

All Doctors have appointments available to pre-book but consideration will need to be given to the days that the Doctors work and the fact that some working days are allocated for specific duties e.g. on-call, Keyingham Surgery or specialist clinics such as diabetes.

When booking an appointment with the Doctor please bear in mind that it is a 10 minute appointment.  All but the simplest problems take at least 10 minutes to deal with safely.  If you have more than one problem, please consider requesting a longer appointment, or be prepared to come back another day to deal with other issues.  This will enable the Doctor to deal with each problem fully, and will help us run the surgeries to time so other patients are not kept waiting. 

Text Message Reminders

To reduce the number of missed appointments we are now sending patients a text message containing their appointment details when a booking is made. A further message will also be sent 48 hours before the appointment is due as a reminder.

• Same day appointments
  

Any additional appointments or cancellations are released at 8am each morning for more urgent problems that need to be seen on that day.

• Telephone Consultations
  

We provide telephone consultations for those patients who need to speak to a Doctor, but for whom it is not necessary to be seen. Please telephone reception before 10.30am to request a telephone consultation.

You will be asked to give a contact number and brief details of the problem. A GP will call you back later the same morning.

• Sit and Wait Surgery
  

The Sit & Wait surgery is an available option each day, should all appointments for the day be taken and you consider that the matter is urgent and cannot wait for an appointment.  However, we must request that this is the final option and only used for those urgent cases that cannot wait. 

If an examination is required, a chaperone will be made available,  should you so wish. 

• Monday evening and Saturday morning surgeries

These are pre-bookable appointments only.  There is no Sit & Wait service during these extended hours.

Cancellations 

Unfortunately this is a problem when patients who book an appointment and do not attend.  Please phone to cancel your appointment if it is no longer needed.  This will ensure the time can be made available for those who need to attend.

Home Visits

If possible please try to telephone reception before 10am if you require a home visit.

A doctor or nurse will phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Surgery.

Test Results

Please telephone the surgery between 11.00 - 16.00, Monday to Friday for the results of any tests you have undergone. The telephone is not as busy then and the Reception staff are more able to assist you.

All results are viewed by a doctor who will advise of any further action required. This message will then be passed on via the reception staff.

When you take your test you will be told how long it will be before the results are returned to the practice.

It is your responsibility to check your results and to make an appointment to discuss them with your doctor if your are advised to do so.

Confidentiality

Note that the practice has a strict policy regarding confidentiality and data protection and we will only release test results to the person to whom they relate, unless that person has given prior permission for the release of this data, or they are not capable of understanding the results.

Specimens

If you are requested to provide a specimen we would prefer you to collect and use a specimen container which is available at the Reception desk.

Please always write your full name, date of birth and the date of the specimen on the container before handing it back to the Reception on the same day, before 12.00 noon.