APPOINTMENT UPDATE :
Requests for 'urgent' on-the-day appointments will be triaged by our reception team. We are not an emergency service so it may be that such requests are directed to other, more appropriate, healthcare providers including minor injuries and A&E departments. A member of our reception staff will be happy to help you may be asked for some information about the nature or urgency of your problem so they can try to find the most suitable appointment for you. This is not for them to make clinical decisions but rather they are now trained and instructed by the doctors to use some key questions to help ensure you are guided to the correct appointment - both in terms of time and clinician.
Demand on our Practice and Appointments updated 19.12.2022
CHECK YOUR SYMPTOMS
NHS services across the North East & Yorkshire region are experiencing extremely high demand at the moment – this includes GP practices and the 111 service which are both extremely busy
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If you need advice for a minor/mild illness or injury, in the first instance, please either contact your local pharmacy for help or look at the self-care advice that’s available on-line from the NHS at www.nhs.uk
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If you want to check your symptoms, there is an on-line symptom checker available at 111.nhs.uk, which will re-direct you to a health professional if you need to be consulted by someone
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As we gradually come out of pandemic restrictions we are constantly seeking to manage patient demand in the best way can reasonably do (see above).
Currently the demand for any healthcare appointment is at an all time high. Recently, many patients wanted to protect the NHS by not attending for a new condition, or it could have been that many hospital departments did not see any patients for numerous months or it may be for a number of any other reasons, but now, we are seeing those patients whose conditions have worsened and as such they now need more NHS resources. This will not be a quick fix, but we are working extremely hard to try and help you.
As a team, please can we remind you that we do, and always will, follow NHS and governmental guidance to ensure that the very best service will be given. We are here to help and want to continue to do so. Please be kind to us as we are working under extremely difficult conditions to deliver as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Your help will be very gratefully received.
Booking an Appointment with the Doctors
You can book an appointment with a GP or nurse by calling in person and asking our reception team - or you can telephone (see below for opening times) or please check the NHS App as we have released some GP appointments for online booking.
A member of our reception staff will be happy to help you may be asked for some information about the nature or urgency of your problem so they can try to find the most suitable appointment for you. This is not for them to make clinical decisions but rather they are now trained and instructed by the doctors to use some key questions to help ensure you are guided to the correct appointment - both in terms of time and clinician.
Book online for a doctor appointment (subject to availability).
To book online you will need to be registered for online access - this not only means you can book appointments online or via a smartphone but you can order repeat prescriptions, view your medical records and see any letters or documents.
Download your personal online registration form to set up this service. You need to attend in person with the completed form and provide us with proof of address and ID.
There are a number of different apps you can use/download on your Apple or Android smartphone. Details of these will be listed on your registration form. For more details of online services click here
You can find out additional information about online services from the NHS here using online services
Booking an Appointment with the Nurse or Phlebotomist/Healthcare
These are normally bookable up to 4-6 weeks in advance (subject to availability). Please do not ring for these appointments within 30mins of the doctor booking times
Nurse/Phlebotomist appointments are currently not bookable on-line due to the complex nature of the appointment times for specific procedures.
Surgery Opening Times:
Normal Opening Hours:
We are open from 8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday, excluding Public Holidays
Morning appointments are generally between 8.10am to 11.30am and afternoon appointments are between 2.00pm to 5.20pm.
To make a routine doctor appointment, please call in at or telephone (01482 652652) from 08.00am Where appointments are not available on the day you ring we will aim to offer to book you one 2 to 5 days to avoid you having to call us back.
If you tell us your call is urgent for a doctor appointment that day - you will be asked some questions by the reception team to ensure you are appropriately directed to the duty doctor : please note we are not an emergency service and some requests for urgent appointments may be re-directed to other healthcare settings including minor injury units or A&E
If you have online access we usually try to release 'same day' appointments from 07.00am to be booked online.
Extended Opening Hours:
We have early morning doctor appointments on four mornings each week - Monday to Friday from 07.30am. These are pre-booked only and you can book via reception or online.
Please be aware the surgery is closed for all other purposes until 8.00am
These appointments are intended for patients who work or who find it difficult to attend
during the day.
Home Visits requests when you are too ill to attend
Requests for home visits to patients who are too ill to attend surgery should be made as early as possible and before 10.00am. Visits are undertaken after morning surgery (after 12.00 noon) by the duty doctor of that day.
Homes visits are not offered for social or convenience reasons. It is always preferable to see patients at the surgery where access to clinical notes, diagnostics, prescriptions etc makes this safer.
Please be aware that you cannot request a particular doctor to attend a home visit - these are undertaken by the Duty Doctor for that day
Cancelled Appointments
It is important that you inform the reception staff if you are unable to attend your appointment, this will allow that appointment to be offered to another patient. If you fail to notify the Practice that you are unable to attend, you may be sent a letter informing you that you have defaulted from your appointment. Persistent defaulters maybe removed from the list.
If you are Late
Please attend your appointment on time. Although the doctor/nurse may be running late due to another patients' medical need, if you attend late for your appointment and the surgery is running to time you may not be seen. Please get in touch as soon as possible if you think you will not be able to attend on time.
Please note appointment times may vary during illness and holidays.
Failure to Attend (DNA)
A 'DNA' occurs when a patient did not attend a booked appointment and failed to contact the Surgery in advance to cancel - or where the cancellation is so late as to make it impossible to offer that time for another patient who needs treatment.
The Surgery will code this DNA and this will prompt a retrospective check on the number of DNA's recorded against that person. Whilst we are primarily concerned with our own appointment observance, consideration may also be given to any hospital appointments where we have been notified that a patient has failed to attend.
Where this is the first occasion, we may send a letter detailing the appointment that was missed and requesting the patient a) contact us with a reason and b) take care to avoid a re-occurrence.
If this is the second occasion, a letter will be sent to advise of the missed appointment and also advise that, if a further appointment is DNA'd then the patient will be at risk of de-registration.
If a third DNA has occurred the Surgery may write to the patient - and advise NHS East Riding at the same time - that the patient is to be de-registered without further notice.
Avoid becoming a 'DNA'
If you cannot attend - or no longer need - an appointment please ring us beforehand.
Mistakes happen and the Surgery knows appointments can be forgotten - in which case when the patient responds to a letter (or sooner) we will be able to note the reasons.
Preference, of course, is for us to know in advance so we can offer the appointment(s) to others.
Interpreter
If you require an interpreter with you when you see your Doctor please notify the receptionist and will arrange for the GP/Nurse to be aware of this. We now use a telephone interpreting service which should mean it is quicker and easier to arrange an appointment and this also means there will not be someone else in the consultation with the GP or nurse.
Private Medical Examinations
Medical examinations for special purposes such as pre-employment, fitness to travel, elderly drivers, fitness to undertake sports etc, require longer time than a routine appointment - and they do not form part of NHS Services; you will be charged for any such examination. Please check the fee chargeable when you require to arrange any such examination.
Request for GP Letters/Completion of Forms
If your Doctor has agreed to write a letter for you in connection with your employment, acting as a referee, or for some other specific area, you will be charged for this letter.
Please allow at least five working days before collecting your letter; if you require this letter urgently please inform your Doctor during your consultation.
If you wish your Doctor to complete a form/report for you, there will also be a charge for this, please allow at least 48 hours from handing in the form before.
The secretary will be able to advise you of any applicable charges.
Choice of Doctor
We will always do our best to arrange for you to see the doctor or nurse of your choice. This may not always be possible on the day of request - in which case you may need to wait until that doctor has available appointments.
However if that results in an unacceptable wait for you, we will try to offer an appointment with another of the clinicians.
In exercising your choice to see a named doctor it is on the understanding that the surgery cannot guarantee an appointment in any given timeframe. Where a patient wants to see a named doctor and that doctor is fully booked on that day or even for the following day or days we cannot undo that situation.
Named Doctor
From March 2016 we have allocated every patient a named accountable GP and patients can ask to be informed who that allocated GP is.
We allocate every patients to one of the GP partners when registered on an equal shares basis - and if a patient wants to know who that doctor is we are happy to advise them on request.
It makes no practical difference as to who you see for treatment - nor does it mean you will only be see by that allocated doctor.
This named doctor will, where needed, oversee the co-ordination of all appropriate services required under the NHS contract and ensure they are delivered to each patient where required (based on the clinical judgement of that named doctor)
The named doctor will not take on vicarious liability for the work of other doctors or health professionals.
Nor will the named GP take on 24 hour responsibility for a patient or make a change to their working hours. The requirement does not imply personal availability - and the named doctor cannot be the only GP to care for that patient
This allocation of a named doctor - required by contract - does not remove a patients' choice of who to see.
To Book a routine Advance Appointment
You can usually book a doctor appointments up to five to seven days in advance either in person/telephone to the surgery or on-line (if you register for this) - subject to availability.
Nurse and phlebotomist appointments are all bookable in advance (but are not available to book on-line) and we try to have these available 2 weeks in advance - subject to availability.
Please bear in mind that once the allocated spaces for advance doctor appointments have been booked then we will be unable to offer more availability until the following day. Demand can, on occasion, exceed our ability to offer.
We do not generally book Monday morning or any Friday appointments in advance. Other routine appointments may be available for on-the-day booking.
Patients may have to call/ring or check on-line on more than one occasion before being able to gain the advance appointment they want - particularly if they want to see a specific doctor. We advise ringing early in the day to ask about appointment availability.
Please Note: Our priority is to see patients with urgent need as soon as possible. Therefore we may have to reduce or remove advance appointments on some days (or weeks) if we find this is affecting our ability to offer appointments to those who need to be seen in less than seven days.
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