News
Patient Newsletter August 2025
August 2025
We have taken the time as a Practice to pull this patient newsletter together so that we can share with you some information about the current pressures on our services and how you can help us with this.
We know that access to our services can sometimes be difficult but we hope that by sharing some information about our processes with you, that this will help you understand how best to engage with our services.
Online Patient Access
Did you know that we offer Online Patient Access for booking a doctor’s appointment and for ordering a prescription?
This relieves pressure on the telephones and enables you to manage appointment booking and prescription ordering at your own convenience. If you have not already signed up for Online Patient Access please contact a member of our Reception Team and they will assist you with this.
Telephones
Telephone Access is the number one service, which we would really like to improve upon, as we know how difficult it can be to get through to the Practice. We would like to share some background information to our telephone service to help you understand how hard we work at improving it;
We have a minimum of two full time members of staff dealing with back to back phone calls from 8.30 am-1pm and 2pm- 6pm daily. In addition to this we have various other members of staff handling calls for prescriptions and test results daily.
We have invested in our phone system over the past couple of years so that we can offer you the ability to wait in a call queue; the ability to choose from an Options menu to take your enquiry to the correct call handler; we have increased the number of lines coming into the Practice to 10 and we have a separate line for prescriptions and clinic appointment booking.
You can help us get the most out of our telephone system by taking some of the following simple steps:
· Only phone the Practice first thing in the morning if your issue is urgent for that day. All routine appointments can be booked in advance and should be arranged outside of the key busy times to lessen pressure on the telephones first thing in the morning
· Always use Online Patient Access for Prescription Ordering to lessen pressures on the telephone lines
· Remember that you can self-refer to Physiotherapy/Maternity and some other Services using the online booking form on our Practice Website
· Check what illnesses can be treated through the Pharmacy First Scheme, you can use this scheme without speaking to your doctor, details of this are available on our Website
Appointments
We have a total of 10 GP’s working in the Practice and across the week we offer 1000 bookable slots in which you can speak to or see a Doctor. These appointment slots are a mix of same day access for acute problems and slots which can be booked in advance for more routine matters.
We would always strongly encourage you to self-manage your health needs and when you contact us for an appointment always try to choose the option which is most appropriate. Our services are capped by budget and we must make them work as efficiently as we can to meet the needs of all of our patients.
It is vital if you no longer need your appointment that you cancel it so that we can offer it to another patient. Each week we have on average 10 appointments which are wasted because patients do not attend and do not advise us of this in advance. This is a total of 40 appointments per month which we could be offering to patients who desperately need to see their Doctor.
Remember that there are mix of other services available to you without seeing your Doctor, always consider these first before phoning for a Doctors appointment, we call this Care Navigation and our Receptionists have been trained to try to point you to the right service, that’s right for your needs and at the right time.
In Summary
This is everybody’s NHS and we all have a responsibility to use it appropriately, it runs on a very tight budget but you can help us make the most of our limited resources as follows:
· by tapping into our online resources in the first instance,
· by phoning at the most appropriate time for your health issue
· by answering the Receptionists questions so that they can signpost you to the most appropriate service
· by always cancelling an appointment when you no longer need it.
Published on 14th Aug 2025
FLU VACCINES 2025
THE PRACTICE WILL SOON BE OFFERING FLU VACCINES FOR OUR PATIENTS WHO ARE 65 YEARS AND OVER AS WELL AS PATIENTS IN CLINICAL RISK GROUPS, PRESCHOOL CHILDREN, PREGNANT WOMAN, CARERS AND CLOSE CONTACTS OF IMMUNOCOMPROMISED INDIVIDUALS.
If you are eligible you will be contacted with details of upcoming clinics.
DO NOT ATTEND if you are unwell with symptoms of high temperature, cough, flu like symptoms, loss of taste or smell or diarrhea or if you have recently started a new antibiotic.
Please advise the Practice if you are strictly housebound and require a call out from a District Nurse.
Published on 27th Sep 2024
HRT Advice
Published on 27th Sep 2024
Federation Wait lists
Have you been referred for a procedure in the federation? You can check the waiting times on the website below.
Published on 27th Sep 2024
Page created: 30 September 2024