Appointments via telephone

Routine doctors’ appointments have changed to prevent the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19) and to make sure it's safe for you to be seen as well as protecting other patients and staff.  It's still important to get help from your GP if you need it, but we ask you to contact the surgery rather than come in person, GP's are still available to consult on the telephone and they will arrange to see a patient in person, if this is necessary.

We are currently operating a telephone triage service every morning at 0830, due to an ever-increasing volume of calls urgent medical issues will be prioritised.  Therefore, we will only take routine/non urgent calls, for example medication reviews; request for referrals; sick line requests or blood result reviews, on a Tuesday and Friday morning if possible, at 8:30am.  

ANY General enquiries will be dealt with after 9:30am.

Please phone (028) 91 455 000 to book telephone appointments. The appointments telephone line is open 8:30am every morning and can fill-up very quickly so, please be patient and prepared that you might have to call again if the list is full. Urgent calls will take priority. 

Cancelling & rescheduling appointments

If you cannot attend your given appointment please call (028) 91 455 000 to cancel or reschedule. Appointments that are no longer required can be put to good use and offered to another patient, allowing the doctors and nurses to reduce any backlog of patients and reduce waiting times. Please think of others when you can no longer attend or no longer need a scheduled appointment.

Please note that if your phone will not accept anonymous calls the doctor may not be able to contact you in this way.  If you book a telephone consultation the doctor will only call once so please be prepared to answer your phone.

Home visits

Home visits are routinely available for the terminally ill and truly bedbound patients in whom travel to the surgery by car would cause a deterioration in medical condition or unacceptable discomfort.  Visits to patients not in these categories may be made at the doctor's discretion and based on clinical judgement, but not routinely.

All other patients should make their way to the surgery to see their GP.  This is because for every home visit a GP makes they could see several patients in the surgery, and the doctor is better able to assess and treat patients in a properly equipped surgery than in their own home.

If you believe you need a home visit please call the surgery before 10:30am as rounds have to be planned. You will be asked for a reason for the home visit so we can judge the urgency of the call.  The doctor will phone before visiting to assess whether a home visit is necessary and if so, the urgency of the visit.

In some cases the doctor may judge that a visit is not necessary and may offer telephone advice or may arrange for another healthcare professional such as the District Nurse to visit. 

In some cases the doctor may agree a visit is necessary but not urgent and this may be arranged for another day.

If you would like to better understand the reasons behind our home visiting policy please read these GP Visiting Guidelines produced by South Staffordshire Local Medical Committee.  They provide an excellent background and explanation to past and current home visiting practice in UK General Practice.

To request a home visit please call the practice on (028) 91 455 000.