HOW
DO I...
OBTAIN TELEPHONE ADVICE?
Should you wish to speak to a doctor, a telephone consultation can be requested for you. Your name will be put on the doctor's telephone list and calls are normally made at the end of both morning and afternoon surgeries. The more information you can give the receptionist about the matter in hand, the more prepared the doctor will be when they ring you back.
NHS Direct offers a national medical advice/helpline service, 24 hours a day on 0845 46 47. Help and advice on minor ailments/self-help groups and general medical information can be provided for the cost of a local phone call, or you can visit their website at www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk.
HOW
DO I...
MAKE AN APPOINTMENT?
The surgery is run on an
appointments system. Our doctors like to see their own patients, so
please make appointments in advance. If you need to see a doctor more
urgently and your own doctor is not available, one of the other partners
will be pleased to help. If you are unable to keep an appointment for any reason please make sure that you let us know so that we can reallocate your appointment to another patient.
An emergency service is run
daily for patients who need to be seen urgently when no appointments
are available. You will be asked to attend at a given time
when you will be given a red card advising you that `This is a five
minute emergency appointment. Please be concise and to the point. Please
note - one patient with one problem only.'
FOLLOW-UP APPOINTMENTS
If the doctor asks you to
come back to the surgery for another appointment, please do not forget
to make this appointment before you leave the surgery.
As we are a training practice, we
have, from time to time, either a GP registrar, medical student or student nurse
for part of the year. You may be asked to see the registrar if your own doctor
is unavailable.
HOW
DO I...
REQUEST HOME VISITS?
If you are too ill to attend
the surgery and require a home visit please telephone 523525 if possible
between 8.30am and 10.30am. This will help the doctors organise their
visits.
If you are able to attend
the surgery, please do so as the doctors can see several patients in
the surgery in the time it takes to do one visit.
Please only call the duty
doctor for emergencies.
Your co-operation will be
appreciated as unnecessary calls are a trial to the doctors.
HOW
DO I...
OBTAIN TEST RESULTS?
If you have had any blood
tests or X-rays etc we would be grateful if you could wait until the
afternoon to telephone us for the results. This is because the doctors
receive a large number every morning and they need time to check them
before they can be filed into your notes. Most blood test results are
available a week after the test has been taken. However, it usually
takes about 14 days for any other correspondence, such as X-ray results
or out-patient attendance letters, to be received.
Confidentiality must be observed
at all times. Therefore results will only be given to the individual
concerned, rather than to another person requesting the result. When
one of our receptionists insists on this, she is acting on instructions,
not being awkward.
HOW
DO I...
OFFER COMPLIMENTS AND MAKE COMPLAINTS?
All of our doctors, nurses and staff aim to provide the most appropriate help or advice to meet the individual needs of our patients. We welcome any comments or suggestions you may have for improving the services which we provide and constructive criticism is always acceptable. If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our service we do offer a practice complaints procedure. Please ask at reception for a form to complete or, alternatively, our practice manager will give you further information. Our aim is to give you the highest possible standard of care and we try to deal swiftly with any problems that occur.
HOW
DO I...
OBTAIN REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS?
Patients on long-term medication will be given a repeat prescription computer printout attached to their prescription. To obtain a repeat, just put a tick beside the items required and either post the list or bring it to the surgery.
(REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTED OVER THE TELEPHONE DUE TO THE RISK OF ERRORS IN THIS PROCESS.)
Please leave your repeat prescription slip in the box in the surgery entrance, ensuring that your name and address are correct. Please allow two working days when collecting your repeat prescription. Prescriptions ordered on a Friday morning will be ready for collection after 1.00pm on the following Tuesday.
HOW DO I...
REGISTER WITH THE PRACTICE?
If you wish to become a patient with us and currently reside within our catchment area, please come into the surgery and collect a registration form. You will need to complete this form, giving us your name, address, date of birth, previous address and doctor, and return it to us as quickly as possible. You will also need to provide us with two forms of identification, one of which must be a photo id such as a passport or photo driving licence. You can request registration with a specific doctor but this may not always be possible.
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