Important: Please note new appointment system from 8th September 2025
Notification of changes to our appointment system
Please note that from Monday 8th September 2025 our appointment system will be changing – this will affect the way that you contact us to request an appointment and the length of GP appointments, which will be increasing 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 not able to complete the online request form (either on the phone or in person).
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:
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 form 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.
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 you have an urgent request, then we will contact you on the day and for routine requests we will respond to you within 3 working days. If the triaging GP assesses that you need an urgent appointment, then our reception team will contact you to book this in.
If they decide 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 still have a limited number of routine GP appointments available to book online. Please note that these will not now be for the following day, but will be routine slots and so will be for a couple of weeks in advance.
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 our receptionists are on hand to help those who are unable to complete the online triage form.
We will be monitoring the changes from 8th 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.
