Appointments

Updated On May 2, 2023

The practice telephone line opens at 8:15 am. This is a very busy period for the surgery. If you are not booking an appointment, please call the surgery with queries after 10 am to avoid waiting in a queue.

Telephone Triage

In response to an increase in demand for same-day GP appointments, we have implemented a Clinician triage system.

If your concern is appropriate, our Receptionists will place you on a triage list for a call-back from one of our Clinicians. You will be telephoned by a Clinician on the same day and either telephone advice or a face to face appointment will be offered to you. Unfortunately, we cannot give a time when such calls might be made. These calls may take place any at any point throughout the day. Please provide a contact number as the clinician will only call once.

You will be asked questions about your symptoms by Reception in order to signpost you correctly. Please answer as fully as you can.

What is Telephone Triage?

Telephone Triage is a method by which a GP contacts a patient and manages their care based on the outcome of that telephone call.

What are the benefits?

Benefits for patients:

  • will speak to a Clinician sooner;
  • will see a Clinician sooner, when appropriate;
  • may get more time with a Clinician, if they need it;
  • saves time by avoiding unnecessary appointments.

Benefits for Clinician:

  • can manage workloads more efficiently;
  • improves the utilisation of paramedics, nurses and other health care professionals;
  • reduces DNAs (Did Not Attend).

FAQs

Q.  Is this to stop me getting an appointment?

A.  Not at all. It is the ensure that the patients who need to be seen on that day are seen by an appropriate health care professional. It’s also to help us cope with the demand for appointments.

Q.  How does it work?

A.  Any patient who wants to be see on the same day, and who fits the criteria for triage, may be assessed this way. The system has been used successfully for several years in many GP surgeries around the country and analysis has shown that the process significantly improves access for patients.

Q.  Why is the practice implementing it?

A.  For a number of reasons:

  • To improve access, and because of the increased demand for appointments.
  • To improve our DNA rates (Did Not Attend); on average we see at least 50 hours of wasted Clinician & nurse time every month because patients do not turn up for their appointments.
  • We need to optimise GP appointments; with an ever-developing workforce, less complicated needs can be dealt with by other members of the health care team.
  • To hopefully reduce waiting times for patients.

Enhanced access

Need a weekend or evening appointment? The Enhanced Access service is designed to provide patients with appointments outside core general practice hours for routine care.

We offer weekday evening telephone appointments 4pm to 8pm via North Hampshire Urgent Care and  alternate Saturday morning appointments at the practice. These appointments are designed for patients who work and who find it difficult to come to the surgery during the working week. We offer face to face GP, Nurse and Phlebotomy appointments and these must be booked in advance.

 

 

Please note:

If you arrive late for your face to face appointment, you might not been seen, and may be offered another appointment so as not to cause delay for other patients.

You can sign up to online access where you can book routine appointments online.

Please note we do not do emergency on the day appointments for medication or sick notes.

Please help us to help you and contact us to cancel.