Appointments



Appointment Information

This is a group practice and patients are free to book routine appointments with the doctor of their choice. It does not matter if your medical card shows that you are registered under a different doctor. Some of the doctors do not work full time and there may therefore be a wait for appointments with these particular doctors.

Why Does the Receptionist ask me to tell Them the Nature of my Problem?

The Partners of the practice introduced the system to try and direct our patients to the most appropriate team member. Not all issues require a Doctor’s appointment. Many people are not aware of the different roles within the practice or the services we offer.

By obtaining a brief description, the receptionist can direct the patient to the most appropriate person, in the team.

Please do not be embarrassed. All of our reception staff are highly professional and patient confidentiality is of paramount importance.

Booking

If you feel the need to see a doctor within 24 hours, and your appointment cannot wait, please telephone the medical centre before 10:00. Your name will be placed on a triage list and the on-call duty doctor for that day, will call you back to discuss your requirement, and if necessary offer you an appointment later during that day.

This minimises the number of appointments lost due to patients who pre-book and forget to attend. If your preferred GP is fully booked, you will be offered an appointment with another GP.

Please remember ‘on the day’ appointments are for emergencies only.

Our appointments are 10 minutes long. Although we try hard to run our surgeries on time please be patient if we are running late.

Any delay is likely to be due to the doctor dealing with a particularly complex or serious condition, which is always impossible to anticipate.

Pre-booked Appointments

There are a small number of appointments available that can be booked up to one week in advance.  If all of these have been booked and you still require a non-urgent appointment, a receptionist will take your name and telephone number and then contact you with an appointment.

Please make this phone call after 10am to help manage emergencies prior to this time.

Online Consultations

If you feel that you need to see a doctor but are unable to attend a physical appointment, please contact the surgery and request an online consultation.

We will send you an appointment time with a link where you can join an online consultation with a clinician.

Urgent Consultations

If you feel that you need to be seen urgently please telephone before you come to the medical centre. You will be offered an appointment slot with either the nurse practitioner or the doctor.  Under these circumstances you will usually see the on-call duty doctor and not your usual GP.

Sometimes it will be necessary for the receptionists to take your details and contact you after speaking with the duty doctor, who may also ring you. If you feel able, please give a brief explanation of the problem.

If you need an urgent visit, the receptionist will contact the on call duty doctor straight away and you will be contacted and visited as appropriate.

Practice Nurses

In a number of cases it might be worth considering an appointment with a practice nurse rather than a doctor. Practice nurses are qualified to deal with many ailments and you may be seen more quickly.

Nurses appointments are available to book up to six weeks in advance, however there may be a wait for certain clinics.

Telephone Advice

The doctors are happy to deal with queries that do not need a face-to-face consultation over the phone. Please ask the receptionist to leave a message for the doctor to call you.

It will not be possible for the receptionist to tell you what time the doctor will call you as this will depend on the level of demand on that particular day.

If you have a mobile number, you can leave that as a contact number. If this is not emergency/urgent advice, please call us after 10am.

Cancellations

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else. 

Did Not Attend (DNA) Appointments

To see our practice policy for unattended appointments without cancellation please click below.

Online Access 

Our practice currently offers online access for online appointment booking and prescription ordering – please speak to reception to sign up.

Our practice is also offering patients the facility to view areas of their records online. The areas patients will be able to access will include a summary of information relating to medications, allergies and adverse reactions. As well as viewing this information, there will be the facility to download and print it.  

If patients require online access to other areas of their record they will need to speak with the practice to facilitate this.


Improved Access Service

We are able to offer improved access to GP and Nurse appointments at one of our hubs across West Norfolk. We have eight hubs in total spread across West Norfolk.

How do I Access the Service?

The provision of this service is available to patients who are registered with one of the surgeries within West Norfolk.

What appointments are available?

Appointments are available Monday to Friday from 6.30pm – 8pm, on Saturdays 8am – 1pm and on Sundays 9am – 12pm.

Patients who cannot be seen:

  • Babies under 12 weeks old
  • Pregnancy-related problems
  • Severe mental health problems
  • Patients identified with a potentially life-threatening medical condition which requires referral to urgent or emergency care settings
  • Walk in patients

We want your opinions about the West Norfolk wide Improved Access to GP Appointments Service. Complete the short free survey in under ten minutes by following the link: surveymonkey


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