Our Appointment System

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If you have a mobile phone, please ensure that we have your number and we will text you a reminder of your appointment.

If you have to cancel an appointment, please ring 01280 704 122 and leave a message at any time of the day or night. You can also cancel an appointment by replying "CANCEL" to the number given on your text reminder or cancel online through your Patient Access account. 

Please note: If you are booking a blood test, this can only be done if the doctor or nurse has requested this

Understanding Our Appointment System

I need to be seen outside working hours. How can I get such an appointment?

For ongoing matters you can pre-book an evening appointment. There are also Saturday morning appointments and some Saturday afternoon appointments available to pre-book. However if you need to be seen urgently because you are unwell, we would expect that you would not be at work and hence could attend either our morning or afternoon urgent clinic. If you are at work, your employer is legally obliged to give you time off to see a doctor.

I have an ongoing health problem and would like to see my usual doctor who is familiar with my problem.

We hope that our new way of managing urgent demand will enable us to have more appointments, however you may have to wait 2—4 weeks to see a particular doctor.

I am worried about my child and would like him/her seen today, but am requesting an appointment after school.

We would expect that if your child had an urgent medical problem then they should be able to attend either our morning or afternoon urgent clinic.

I don’t come to the doctor often and so have a list of problems saved up. Do I need a longer appointment?

Our appointments are booked at 15 minute intervals which is enough time to deal with one issue effectively. You can request a double appointment (30 minutes), but to accommodate this you will need to book this well in advance.

Can I be seen over the weekend?

We run a weekly Saturday morning surgery and an occasional Saturday afternoon surgery for pre-bookable appointments only. We cannot accommodate emergencies or walk-in patients. If you need to be seen as an emergency over the weekend, our Out of Hours G.P Deputising service will provide this care. You need to ring 111 to access this service.

Further Information

We are continually striving to provide a flexible and responsive appointment system. Given the wide range of demands on our service this can be a challenge and the pandemic has only brought with it more challenges. We need to factor in demand for emergency appointments on the day as well as for routine appointments available for days to weeks ahead.

Under our old system the only way to consult with your GP was to book an appointment. It was often difficult to find an appointment that was suitable for you to attend surgery. During the pandemic we had to find other ways of consulting with our patients and we have found these methods, in many cases, to be much more efficient and convenient for our patients.

Perhaps the biggest benefit is that it provides flexibility in the way your GP can work. Because we no longer have fully booked surgeries of patients arriving at 10 minute intervals, we are able to spend more time with patients that need that time and equally provide more a more accessible service to patients.

Your GP is now consulting in a variety of ways throughout the day, including telephone consultations, face to face consultations, video consultations, online consultations and responding to online messages. We understand that not all patients use or have access to mobile or online technology, and may even struggle to use the telephone due to poor hearing. In these cases it may be best to book a face to face consultation directly. However in most cases it really helps your GP to speak to you first, by telephone or video, to understand the nature of your problem. Your GP can, if needed, arrange a face to face consultation with you and in most cases this can be on the same day that they speak to you. Because we are working flexibly we are more likely to be able to offer a time to attend that fits in with you. If you have a strong preference for a face to face consultation, please explain this to the doc[1]tor when you speak to them. In some cases the initial telephone consultation will reveal that your GP is not the best person to help you and they may direct you to another health care professional. In other cases investigations can be arranged prior to seeing you which will help the doctor help you more effectively.

For a routine appointment with a specific GP, you may need to book up to 2-4 weeks in advance. Appointments can be booked via Patient Access, NHS app, over the telephone or at the Reception desk. We would encourage you to see your registered doctor for ongoing or complex problems.

Our routine appointments will continue to be released as before, on a rolling basis for booking in advance as follows:

• Next day
• 2 days ahead
• 7 days ahead
• 14 days ahead
• 28 days ahead

We offer appointments from between 8 a.m and 6 p.m. every day. We also offer evening appointments on Thursdays, some Mondays and some Fridays. We are also open on Saturday mornings from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m. and some Saturday afternoons until 5.00pm for pre-bookable appointments only. We do not see emergency or walk-in patients on a Saturday -this service is provided by our Out of Hours GP Service.

Unfortunately on average we have between 30 and 40 appointments wasted each week when patients do not turn up. This obviously reduces capacity for other patients to be seen and puts further pressure on the system. We offer a text reminder system for appointments. Our text message reminder service offers an automatic cancellation facility meaning any appointments cancelled by responding to our text reminder are immediately available for other patients to book. Please ensure we have an up to date mobile number for you in order to take advantage of this service. You can also ring our 24 hour appointment cancellation line.

As we are a training practice we do have varying numbers of extra doctors doing their specialist GP training with us. They are fully supervised and always have another doctor available to assist if necessary. Teaching forms a valuable and necessary part of their training and we have to factor in time for our other doctors to do this, which means their capacity to see patients can be reduced at times.

We hope the above helps you to understand the complexities of providing for everyone’s needs. We need you to work with us so that we can provide a flexible and responsive service for all patients.

If you have any feedback about our new service we would be happy to hear from you. 

Text Message Reminders

AccuRx Text Reminder Service

Please make sure we have an up to date mobile number for you so that we can send you a reminder by text 24 hours before your next appointment.  If you do not wish to take advantage of this service but would like us to have your mobile number in case we need to contact you for any other reason you can ask to opt out of the reminder service. 

You can also cancel an appointment by replying "CANCEL" to the number given on your text reminder.

You can now register to receive information by text message on your phone regarding appointments and health care. 

Following the new GDPR regulations effective from May 25th 2018, we now need your express consent to be able to text you reminders and confirmations etc. Please complete this secure online form to give consent

Volunteer Car Service

Do you have difficulty in attending medical appointments? The volunteer car service can help, for further information please click here.

Urgent Access Clinic

Please note that the Sit and Wait Clinic has been replaced with the new Urgent Access Clinic.

If you feel you need to be seen, please ring and speak to one of our administration team who will advise you.

If you are acutely unwell or have a sick child then a same day urgent face to face consultation is often the most appropriate way to help you. However some urgent cases can be dealt with without the need for an examination so it may be worth an initial discussion first. In order to assess your suitability for the clinic and prioritise your care, the receptionists will need a brief explanation of your problem at the time of booking. You will be booked in to see or speak with a health professional- this can include a Nurse Practitioner, GP Registrar or a GP. The Nurses are trained to deal with all minor illness and injury. We are unable to give you a choice of clinician for this clinic.

Your health is our priority and we would therefore expect that you should attend at the time you are given. All employers and schools must allow time off for urgent medical appointments.

Ongoing or complex problems may not be suitable for this clinic. We will only be able to deal with your immediate concerns and you may be asked to return for a routine appointment.

If you are in any doubt whether our Urgent Access Clinic is suitable for your needs, please ask our admin team and they will be able to advise you