Appointments
You may consult with any doctor in the practice if their availability allows. All surgeries are by appointment only.
Routine booked appointments can be made during weekday surgery hours by telephone or in person; if ringing the surgery on 01743 343148 please hold to be directed straight to our reception team. Appointments can also be arranged via the online facility (Patient Access) by clicking on the link at the top of this page.
Bookings may be made well in advance, enabling us to offer patients an appointment at a time more convenient to them. We aim to have our appointment sessions available to be booked approximately 4 weeks in advance, however, there may be times when due to workload pressures in the admin office this is not possible so please bear with us.
Consultations are at 10 minute intervals, but certain procedures require extra time (eg cervical smears) so it is helpful if you can inform our reception staff of this where appropriate.
Please also remember to make a separate appointment for each person to be seen – only one patient can be seen per appointment, so please do not ask receptionists to fit in extras.
Extended Access Appointments
We would like all patients in our community to be able to see a local GP or Nurse when they need to. We have set up a network of GP Practices across the region offering extended opening hours for pre-bookable and same day routine extended access appointments. The GP extended opening hours service operates between 6.30pm-8.00pm on weekdays and 8.30am-12.30pm at weekends and allows patients to be seen within a network of GP Practices at a convenient time and location, depending on availability. For more information regarding Extended Access, visit our News page.
Cervical smear and NHS health check appointments are available through the extended access service - just ring the surgery and ask the receptionist for one of these appointments in an extended hours session.
To book an appointment during these times, simply call our main reception line on: 01743 343148.
Medicals
Please note that medicals for insurance companies or third party agencies take longer and are only available at certain times / days of the week. These appointments are only available with our regular doctors ie not locums. It is therefore important to advise our receptionists that your appointment is for a “medical” and to liaise about the relevant paperwork.
Emergency / Urgent Appointments
If all routine appointments have been used and a patient feels that their medical condition necessitates being seen that day ( – then we will organise an “urgent” five minute appointment with one of the doctors. Patients cannot request to see a specific doctor and these appointments are for discussing their “urgent” problem only.
Sick Children
If you are concerned about your child we will always endeavour to get them seen as soon as possible. Please phone the surgery for an appointment, or to ask advice from a doctor or nurse on whether to bring your child to the surgery. (NB this may be quicker than a visit.)
The doctors will sometimes run late. Please be patient if you are asked to wait: you may need the longer consultation next time.
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.
Blood Test Appointments
When booking your blood test appointment online - please ALWAYS indicate the reason for the blood test or which blood tests are being done plus the name of the person who asked you to organise the appointment. If this information is not provided we may not be able to perform the blood test as the relevant laboratory request form will not be available.
We have created a reference guide to assist patients in determining which clinicians they need to see about various conditions and reviews:
Guidance about which clinicians to book appointments with
Online Booking and Cancellation of Appointments
It is now possible to book or cancel your appointments online via Patient Access and the NHS App.
We would encourage patients to register for this useful service which also enables viewing of the electronic health record (EHR) and ordering of repeat prescriptions.
To find out about registering for Patient Access or NHS App, please follow this link which will take you to our Online Services page: https://www.shsurgery.co.uk/doitonline.aspx?pr=M82060