Appointment Policy

Our reception team operate as care navigators and are trained to direct patients to the most appropriate source of help either in or outside the surgery. In order to do this the doctors have requested staff to ask relevant questions to make sure they are booking patients to see the right person.

Care navigation is a national project and will form part of the CQC’s assessment framework. It is our policy that children under the age of 16 will only be navigated to services within the surgery.

GP appointment sessions are added to the computer system 3 months in advance at any point in time to ensure pre-bookable availability. All routine appointments are 10 minute slots. The practice offers routine pre-bookable appointments up to 3 months ahead, bookable ‘on the day appointments’ and ‘urgent’ appointments.

All released pre-bookable slots are available to patients by telephone; internet booking (over 16 years old) using SystmOne Patient Access (GP appointments only) or the NHS App; or to those who present at reception. Telephone lines open at 8am and the reception opens at 8.30 am. Appointment times are spread across the session to provide a choice of time for patients.

If all pre-bookable slots have been taken due to high demand and a GP requires one to follow-up a patient, the GP will offer the patient a follow-up appointment during the consultation and release an ‘Embargoed’ slot at their discretion.

We allow patients to see the GP of their choice, unless there is one particular clinician with a specific skill (e.g. minor surgery, coil fittings). We encourage continuity of care. Sometimes patients need longer than 10 minutes and are able to book a double appointment. Where a patient has complex needs, a GP will sometimes highlight on their medical record an alert that double appointments should be offered as standard.

Bookable ‘on the day’ appointments are released in two phases.  Appointments for same day morning surgeries are released from 8 am. At 1.30pm appointments for the same afternoon/evening are released.

The Practice is committed to answering the telephone as quickly as possible and within six rings. If the telephone lines are busy, patients will automatically hear a comfort message advising them to call back. Patients are advised that telephone calls may be recorded and our telephone system has this option which can be selected by the call handler.

All patients should be advised in advance if their telephone call is to be recorded.

We are not commissioned as an emergency service and do not provide the range of diagnostic and emergency care available at A&E and urgent care centres.

The ‘Urgent Telephone Call Handling Protocol’ has been adapted to summarise a number of potentially life threatening conditions that the receptionist can refer to in order to know when to either call an emergency 999 ambulance, when to seek urgent advice from the doctors or when it might be suitable to advise the patient to attend the surgery for immediate assessment. 

Please see the Urgent Telephone Call Handling Protocol

Those patients requiring an ‘urgent’ appointment and no routine slots are available, will be asked to come to the surgery as soon as possible as they will be fitted in during the course of the clinical session. Urgent appointments are shared equally amongst the GPs who are consulting but we aim to direct you towards the GP who best knows you.

There is no ‘specific duty doctor’. Patients will be informed on booking that they have an ‘urgent’ slot which is for their ‘urgent’ presenting problem only and may be required to sit and wait until the clinician/doctor becomes available.

Routine matters cannot be dealt with in an urgent slot and patients will need to book a routine appointment with their usual doctor.