Appointments

Appointments may be made by calling the surgery on 0121 322 8820 from 8.30am Monday-Friday or via online booking.

If all appointments are fully booked and you need an emergency appointment please let the receptionist know and they will try to help you. All patients need an individual appointment so let us know if more than one person in the family needs to be seen.

Telephone Assessment (Triage)

A triage physician is available for advice and minor illness appointments.

Telephone Advice

If you do not need an appointment but need some advice, the doctor or triage physician may be able to speak to you on the phone. Please call the reception after 10am Monday-Friday and the doctor or physician will endeavour to ring you back.

Practice Nurses

In a number of cases it might be worth considering an appointment with a practice nurse rather than a doctor. Practice nurses are qualified to deal with many ailments and you may be seen more quickly.

Interpreter

If required, an interpreter must be requested when making a booking and can take over 48 hours to arrange.

Chaperone

Patients are advised to ask for a chaperone if required, at the time of booking an appointment so that arrangements can be made and the appointment is not delayed. The healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations.

Patient Choice

We do our best to accommodate your rights as a patient to express a preference of practitioner. However, there may be occasions where this is operationally difficult, particularly in cases of sudden illness and same day appointments. If a referral is required to another healthcare provider, we will aim to offer you a choice.

Waiting Times

All effort will be made to see patients on time in surgery. However, surgeries can run late for a number of reasons, such as clinical emergencies. If clinics run over by 30 minutes or more we will aim to let you know. Please bear with us.

Unfortunately, if patients are more than 10 minutes late for an appointment the healthcare professional may not be able to see you. Therefore you may be asked to wait until the end of their clinic or re-book your appointment.

Cancellations

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible so we can try to give the slot to someone else. Appointments that are booked but not attended deny vital care to other patients.

All appointments are now monitored and if you do not attend your appointment, the system will record it as a DNA (Did Not Attend). If you have 3 DNAs, we will contact you to discuss your DNA record.

Home Visits

Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and facilities available, we do appreciate this is not always possible. In this respect, if you do need a home visit, you can help us by calling reception before 11am.

You may only request a home visit if you housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Home visits can only be done for patients who live within the cathchment area. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed. Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls.

You can also be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under 5 years.

Sickness Certificates

You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. Your employer may however require you to complete a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website.

Evidence that you are sick

If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to give them some form of medical evidence to support payment of SSP (statutory sick pay).

It is up to your employer to decide whether you are incapable of work. A medical certificate, now called a 'Statement of Fitness for Work’ (see below) from your doctor is strong evidence that you are sick and would normally be accepted, unless there is evidence to prove otherwise.

You could also provide evidence from someone who is not a medical practitioner, e.g. a dentist. Your employer will decide whether or not this evidence is acceptable. If your employer has any doubts, they may still ask for a medical certificate from your GP.

Statement of Fitness for Work - ’Fit Note'

The 'fit note' was introduced on 6 April 2010. With your employer's support, the note will help you return to work sooner by providing more information about the effects of your illness or injury.

For more information see the DirectGov website (where this information was sourced)