Appointments

General information on our appointment system:

On the day appointments:

Most of our appointments are available on the day. Routine appointments can be booked by telephoning the surgery at 8.30am or online (please see details below).

Please note that appointments available to book on the day do not have to be for urgent issues only.

If you need to make an on the day appointment, please call the surgery at 8.30am or book online from 9pm the previous night. If you phone at 8.30am, we have several receptionists answering the phone at that time so please do keep on the line and we will answer your call as soon as possible.

In order to be fair to all patients, we will not book appointments for patients who turn up in person at 8.30am.

Pre-bookable appointments:

We also have some GP appointments available to book up to three weeks in advance.

Nurse appointments and some chronic disease management appointments are also bookable in advance. Pre and post natal appointments with a doctor, diabetic appointments and appointments with our nursing staff can be booked up to four weeks ahead. You may of course book with a male or female doctor according to preference and availability.

Please phone the surgery if you want to book a pre-bookable appointment. Please note that these are not available on-line at present.

Bookable online appointments:

We have some online booking of GP appointments available each day. Please note that these are bookable on the day only (from 9pm the previous evening), for face to face consultations.

Please click on this link to access available appointments:

https://patient.england.medicus.health/e38a9f/booking/public/019241fd-6374-721a-abe5-2bc85f6db932

Please do not book appointments online if you require a diabetic check, immunisations, cervical screening or dressings – please book these appointments at reception or by telephone so that we can ensure that you see the most appropriate clinician and for the correct amount of time.

Online triage system:

We have recently introduced an online triage system, which you can use to submit administrative or clinical queries. Please click on the ‘Contact us’ tab on the home page to access this.

Please note that these are not for urgent queries and you will receive a response within three working days.

Enhanced access hours:

Together with our Primary Care Network partner practices (Hampton Medical Centre and Broad Lane surgery) we offer enhanced access hours Monday to Fridays until 8pm and on Saturdays from 9am to 5pm.

Saturday clinics: if you have a booked appointment on a Saturday and are unable to attend – please email us at parkroadsurgery.cl@nhs.net to let us know asap.

At this practice our enhanced access hours are: Monday and Wednesday 6:30pm to 8pm and we run one Saturday clinic per month. We also offer extended hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday morning from 7am to 8am. These pre-bookable appointments can be booked through reception up to three weeks in advance.

What you will be asked when booking an appointment:

Our receptionists will ask you for brief details about why you need an appointment. This is to assess the urgency of the appointment and also who would be the most appropriate clinician for you to see. They may also refer you or suggest to you the pharmacy consultation service, physiotherapy self-referral system, paediatric nurse or other appropriate service.

Our receptionists are trained to signpost you to the most appropriate service, along agreed pathways.

Please respect that the receptionist dealing with you will have been trained to take down these details and will treat you with confidentiality. We also respect that there may be a few occasions when you would really rather not give these details (or are unable to) to the receptionist and you can specify this.

Telephone consultations:

We also offer some telephone consultations, for suitable conditions. These can be booked with reception and are generally available both on the day or to pre-book.

Please be aware that the doctor will phone you back within an hour or two of the allocated time (but we are unable to be precise). If they are unable to get through to you on the number provided then it will be necessary to re-book the consultation.

Not all conditions are suitable to be discussed in a telephone consultation and our GPs would normally rather see you in person.

Emergencies:

We retain some appointments for emergencies. If you need urgent medical care, please phone and speak to one of our receptionists. They will raise this with the duty doctor if suitable or may advice you on other action to take.

When the surgery is closed please call 111 for urgent medical advice.

In a life-threatening situation please telephone 999 first, and then inform the surgery.

Sick Children:

Children, even if they have a fever or rash, can usually be brought safely to the surgery, but whenever possible please telephone us first to ensure you are seen promptly. It is often quicker to attend the surgery than to wait for us to visit, but please don’t walk in and expect a doctor to be on the premises all the time. Please telephone us first.

Coronavirus Notice:

Please do not come into the surgery if you have coronavirus symptoms. You should stay at home and use 111 online for advice.

If you need a GP appointment and have covid symptoms, then you will be asked to do a lateral flow test and offered a phone consultation first. If the GP needs to see you then they will ask you to come in after the phone consultation.

General notice:

It is normally possible to see a male or a female GP if you have a preference. Please make sure that you ask the receptionist when booking an appointment.

Please make a separate appointment for each person to be seen. Please let us know if you are unable to keep your appointment, as we will be able to offer it to someone else.

Emergencies will be dealt with at short notice and with whichever doctor is available.

Our appointment system:

In each session about 40% of appointments are pre-bookable up to three weeks ahead. 60% of appointments are bookable on the day for non-urgent and urgent conditions. Bookings for these appointments taken from 08:30. Part of one session every afternoon is kept for urgent conditions that need to be seen.

A session normally comprises 15/18 ten-minute appointments. Individual doctors work different days and hours so are not always available. The receptionists can advise you when particular doctors are working.

PLEASE NOTE: Appointment slots are for ten minutes each and normally your doctor will only be able to discuss one major issue in that time.Where you have further issues you may be asked to come back for a further appointment.

Every effort is made to keep to time, however given the complexity of some of our work we would ask for your understanding if a surgery should be running late.

Appointment reminder service:

Please note that we send out email or text reminders for appointments booked in advance. If you haven’t received these please check with reception that we have your correct mobile phone number (or please let them know if you want to opt out of this service) or email address. If you are a young person then please note that we may still have your parent’s mobile number listed in your record so let us know if you want to change this to your number.

We may occasionally send out information on clinics (e.g. flu jab invites) or request feedback via email or text. Please note that we do not read replies sent by email or text (unless it is an automated reply as requested in the message e.g. to cancel an appointment). Any replies should be sent via the online triage system.