Appointments
We triage all appointment requests to ensure patients are seen within a timeframe suitable to their clinical need, based on the information provided. Our Acute Team will get back to you with either a same day appointment, an appointment within a week, or a routine appointment depending on your clinical need. Due to patient demand, there is a wait for routine appointments.
You can request an appointment in the following ways:
- use our appointment request form, Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 15:30. We will respond within 48 hours during opening times but this is usually the same day
- use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App) to complete the appointment request form
- phone us on 01935 810 900, Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 18.30
- visit the surgery and speak with a receptionist, Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 18:00
When you get in touch, we’ll ask what you need help with.
We will use the information you give us to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or health professional to help you, so please give us as much information as you can.
We do not accept appointment requests via email. If you contact us by email, you will be asked to complete a triage form.
What is Patient Triage?
We often get asked by patients what is meant by the term ‘patient triage’ and why is it used?
Simply, it is a clinical assessment by a GP or nurse using the information you, as a patient, have provided to us via a form or over the telephone to a patient services advisor, to prioritise your clinical need and provide you with contact from the best clinician (or administrator in some cases) to help you with your needs.
As demand is outstripping capacity in the NHS, it is a method used to ensure the patient is dealt with in an appropriate timeframe based on their clinical needs and those with the most serious needs are prioritised. Hospitals have done this for many years in A&E and it has become a feature in some form in GP practices for about a decade. As demand has increased, with capacity/resource stretched, the need to triage has become more necessary. Click below for more FAQs & an explanation of the process and why we need to implement it.
See our FAQs
Your appointment
However you choose to contact us, we may offer you a consultation:
- by phone
- face to face at the surgery
- by text or email
- or we may signpost you to a service that is more appropriate for your need
Cancelling or changing an appointment
To cancel your appointment:
- use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App)
- using the GP online system – SystmOnline
- phone us on 01935 810 900, Monday to Friday from 8am to 6.30pm
- reply CANCEL to your appointment reminder text message
If you need help when we are closed
If you need medical help now, use NHS 111 online or call 111.
NHS 111 online is for people aged 5 and over. Call 111 if you need help for a child under 5.
Call 999 in a medical or mental health emergency. This is when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.
If you need help with your appointment
Please tell us:
- if there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to respond (you may have to wait longer to be seen in this instance)
- 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
If you are housebound and need an appointment, we will do a home visit. We will phone you first to understand what you need.
To request a home visit, it’s helpful if you phone the practice as soon after 8am as possible.