NON-URGENT APPOINTMENTS

Routine Appointments. Routine GP surgeries are held in the morning starting at 8.30am, in the afternoon from 2.00pm and on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings between 6.30 and 7.30 pm. Routine consultations with a doctor are by appointment only and although some appointments are available up to 2 weeks in advance, most appointments with a GP are only available a week in advance. We regularly undertake patient surveys and believe we are catering for our patients’ appointment needs.

We often have student doctors sitting in with GPs during consultations with patients. If you would prefer not to have a student doctor present during your consultation with a GP, please let us know.

Routine appointments with a Practice Nurse are available from 8.40am to 12 noon and from 2.00pm until 5.20pm on most days. A chaperone is available on request.

URGENT APPOINTMENTS

If you are requesting an appointment for the same day, your call will be triaged. The receptionist will ask for your landline telephone number and some indication of the problem. This is so your call can be directed to the correct clinician.

You can always see a member of the GP team within 48 hours and a member of the healthcare team within 24 hours. In fact, we would expect that clinically urgent cases are managed on the same day.

We ask that you keep your appointment and, if you have to cancel, please do so as soon as possible so that the slot is not wasted. On average, 55 appointments are wasted every month – equivalent to more than 3 full doctor’s surgeries.

When the surgery is closed, if you wish to cancel an appointment, you can leave a message by dialing the normal telephone number and following the recorded instructions.

REQUESTING TELEPHONE CONTACT WITH A GP/NURSE

If you wish to speak to a doctor or nurse urgently you will be put on the triage list and your call will be returned as soon as possible.

If you wish to speak with a specific GP or Nurse about a non-urgent matter, a message can be taken and your call will be returned

Please remember that staff may be dealing with counter enquiries at the same time. Please telephone for your test results only between 2.30 - 4.00pm.  

Home Visits

For the smooth running of the practice, we would be grateful if you could telephone for a home visit as early in the morning as possible. Home visits are undertaken by the doctors or the community nurse.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

Patients are seen in the surgery because medical problems are best dealt with in a modern well-equipped surgery. A doctor can see six patients in the surgery in the time it takes for one patient to be seen at home.

Test Results

Please call our results line 0844 477 8648 (between 2.30 – 4.00 pm) to enquire about your test results as our reception staff will have more time to deal with your request between these times.

Most test results will not be received by the surgery for seven days. Transport is provided to take your specimen to the laboratory in Bath, so please let us have it before midday with your name, date of birth and the date of the specimen clearly written on the container.  

Note that the practice has a strict policy regarding confidentiality and data protection and we will only release test results to the person to whom they relate unless that person has given prior permission for the release of this data or they are not capable of understanding the results.

When you take your test you will be told how long it will be before the results are returned to the practice.

It is your responsibility to check your results and to make an appointment to discuss them with your doctor if your are advised to do so.