Appointments

General information on our appointment system:

Please note that since September 2025 our appointment system has changed – this affects the way that you contact us to request an appointment and the length of GP appointments, which has increased from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. Rather than telephoning the surgery to make a GP appointment, all requests should be made online through our practice website.

Please be assured that we will be able to help patients who are really not able to complete the online request form (either on the phone or in person). Wherever possible, patients will be asked to complete the form themselves online.

There will be no change to the way that practice nurse or phlebotomy appointments should be booked.

How can I make a GP appointment?

Go to our practice website:

Park Road Surgery

Click on the ‘Online requests’ banner in the middle of the homepage:

You will then be able to select whether you have a medical issue, repeat prescription request or administrative query.

Please fill in the online form as fully as possible, giving details of your condition and query. You can send a photo if this is relevant to your condition.

Please note that if you have more than one query, please complete a second form (this will enable us to ensure that each query gets the most appropriate response).

The online requests function is available from 7.30am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday.

What if I’m unable to access the triage form online?

We understand of course that some of our patients will be unable to access the website or the online form. If this is the case, please phone us on 020 8977 5481 and our reception team will be able to complete the form for you. Our phone lines are open from 8.30am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday.

Or please come in to the surgery and one of our receptionists can help you to complete the online form. Our doors are open from 8am to 6.30pm.

All triage request forms will then be submitted to the triaging team in the same way.

[Please note that online requests cannot be submitted via the NHS app at this time].

What will happen when I’ve submitted my online request?

All of the online triage requests will be assessed throughout the day by our triage team, which will always include a GP, on the day that you send it.

If the triaging GP assesses that you need an urgent appointment, then our reception team will contact you to book this in. If your request is not urgent, then you may be sent a link to book a routine appointment, offered health advice or be sign-posted to a suitable service elsewhere.

Once you have submitted your request, please ensure that you check your emails, as, where appropriate, we may email you in response to your query.

If the GP decides that you need a routine appointment, then you will be sent a booking link so that you can book this in yourself. This may be for a face to face or telephone appointment (whichever is most appropriate)

The triaging GP may decide that an appointment may not be the most appropriate response to your query and may, for example:

• send you a message or give you a quick call (if your query can easily be resolved in this way)
• send you a booking link to another service, for example for an appointment with our practice pharmacist
• direct you to your local pharmacy, under the Pharmacy First service (as pharmacies can now advise and treat on a range of agreed conditions)
• send a link with details of further advice

Can I still directly book an appointment online?

We will have a very limited number of routine GP appointments available to book online. Please note this function is for routine requests only. A very small number of slots will be released each evening to book online for routine appointments. Please note that this will only be for appointments up to two weeks in advance (and not for the following day, as we previously had available). No GP appointments are available to book further than 2 weeks in advance.

https://patient.england.medicus.health/e38a9f/booking/public/01992da4-f6df-706d-8893-b9f12351bf0f

How will you contact us?

We will mostly be sending out emails through our clinical system, Medicus. If we don’t have an email address for you then we will text you. If we need to contact you urgently, then we will telephone you.

Please make sure that your contact details with us are up to date.

For young people aged over 13 years old, we are obliged to contact them directly and so will require separate contact details where possible.

Why is the practice making this change?

NHS England have recommended that GP practices should move to having standard 15 minute appointments with GPs. This is due to the increasing complexity of medical issues and to allow GPs to work in a safer way (so that they can complete all administrative tasks associated with that appointment as they go along).

We are supportive of this move to 15 minute appointments, but it does mean that the total number of appointments available will have to decrease proportionally. The only way to deal with this is to move to a triage model, as a way to manage demand (as most practices have already done).

Our commitment to you

We remain committed to providing the best possible service to our patients and to continue to provide face to face appointments wherever appropriate. We are also committed to ensuring that we are accessible to all of our patients and are receptionists are on hand to help those who are unable to complete the online triage form.

We will be monitoring the changes from 8^th September and will be adapting this process to make improvements as we progress.

Patients from other practices have reported that they find the online triage process easier and that access to practice services has improved (moving away from the 8.30am telephone calls!) and we are hopeful that you will feel the same. Several of our Patient Participation Group members have used the online triage system and have reported that it works well.

Thank you for your understanding in this period of change.

Bookable online appointments:

We have limited online booking of GP appointments available. Please note that these are for routine book ahead appointment only, for face to face consultations. Please click on this link to access available appointments:

https://patient.england.medicus.health/e38a9f/booking/public/01992da4-f6df-706d-8893-b9f12351bf0f

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.

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 sending in an online request:

You will be asked for brief details about why you need an appointment or about your query. This is to assess the urgency of the appointment and also who would be the most appropriate clinician for you to see. You can attach a photo if this is relevant.

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. 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:

All online requests will be assessed when they are received. If the request is urgent then we will contact you directly.

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.

General notice:

It is normally possible to see a male or a female GP if you have a preference.

Please make a separate online triage request 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 50% of appointments are routine (book ahead). The remainder are split between urgent on the day and for requests that need to be seen soon ie within 3 working days.

Please see our practice website for details of which days of the week each of our GPs are routinely in for.

PLEASE NOTE: Appointment slots are for fifteen 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.

Home visits:

Doctors allow time to visit in the middle of the day and the early afternoon so please request visits before 11:00am. The duty doctor will then triage the request and you may receive a phone call to discuss the request. Please note that home visits for routine issues are booked for housebound patients only. The practice policy is that a patient is housebound if they require an ambulance to leave the house. Home visits requested for other urgent requests will be assessed by the duty doctor.

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.