How Do I...
Make An Appointment?

Ring the surgery during opening hours. We can usually offer an appointment within 24 hours, but not necessarily with a particular doctor although every reasonable effort will be made to satisfy preferences. Patients have a right to see a practitioner of their choice but may have to wait a while for an appointment. Due to the high demand to see Dr Broom, her appointments are bookable on Monday mornings for the coming week. They will not be bookable before then.

If there are no appointments available and you think your ailment cannot wait until the next routine appointment, you may be booked into an emergency appointment or the receptionist may take your number and ask a clinician to contact you.

If you need to speak to a doctor or nurse, the receptionist will advise you of the best time to ring back or will take your telephone number for the doctor to return your call.

Missed Appointments

During the year 2008, 899 patients failed to attend booked appointments. That makes 74 sessions wasted. These appointments could have been given to people who really were ill and needed to see a GP. Anyone who now fails to attend on two appointments with a GP or nurse, will be sent a letter reminding them of the importance of not wasting appointments. If they miss another appointment, they will be removed from the practice list, with no future notification.

How Do I...
Obtain A Home Visit?

Home visits are for people unable to get to the surgery due to ill health or disablement. Patients unable to get to the surgery because of social reasons ie no transport, will not be deemed eligible for a home visit. Please ring the surgery during working hours, if possible before 10.00am for a same day visit, before the doctors start their rounds. Occasionally a doctor may return a call to assess the nature of the request as to whether a different course of action may be more appropriate eg advice, a prescription etc.