Appointments

The way you book appointments with us has changed. We have moved to a new system for patients to book appointments called Total Triage. Total Triage is a new approach recommended by NHS England, to improve access to services. The main purpose of Total Triage is to:

• enhance the quality of care our patients receive
• ensure patients are given the most appropriate appointment or advice to meet their needs
• communicate with patients in a timely way

We want to make the process of booking an appointment with your GP practice as fair as possible.

The quickest way to contact your surgery with medical or administrative queries is by submitting an online request. Please note that you can only submit an online request between 7 am and 5pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). The system is switched off outside of these hours.

Alternatively, if you are unable to complete an online request, please call 01902 372301 and a member of staff will be happy to complete the request on your behalf.

How do I contact the practice/request an appointment?

• Online request - this is the preferred method, you can still contact the surgery by telephone or in person and Reception will help you.
• Accurx is our online consultation platform accessible via NHS App or clicking on the link above.
• It removes the need to hang on the telephone and avoids the 8 am rush.

What happens to my request?

• Medical requests are triaged by a GP, who will decide on the most appropriate action and timescale, which may include, telephone or face to face appointment, advice or signposting to another service.
• Medical requests- we will respond to you the same day
• Admin requests are viewed and directed to the most appropriate team member for action, we will respond to you within five working days

If you require telephone advice the best way to request this is to submit an online request. We can then direct your request to the most appropriate person, this may be a GP, Nurse, Health Care Assistant, Pharmacist or member of our Admin team. They will then call you to deal with your query.

We are proud to be a training practice, helping to develop healthcare professionals of the future. Being a training practice allows us to reflect on our our knowledge, skills and performance. We have medical students from Keele University and also GP Registrars during their training. Each trainee receives appropriate levels of supervision. You maybe be offered an appointment with a trainee, you will always have the opportunity to decline this if you do not feel it is appropriate for you.

If you need to be seen but are unable to get to the surgery, you may request a home visit. Please contact the surgery before 10.30 am. Home visits will be attended to at lunchtime. 

Please Note: Home visits are for the genuinely housebound, serious and terminally ill patients. Please do not abuse this service. Should you have difficulty getting to the surgery because of lack of transport, please consider using the the Flyer 07543 869754 (Melville Club Members) or contact the Community Car driving scheme 07506 057412. 

Please be aware, if you are requesting a home visit we will only visit you at the address you are registered with at the practice. On no account are we able to provide a home visiting service outside of our practice area.

We regularly use the Urgent Community Response team (previously Rapid Response Team) who may visit on our behalf, it is often more appropriate that they do. They will see conditions that may warrant a hospital admission such as chest infection, urine infection, skin infections/cellulitis and falls in the home (not exhaustive). The team will advise that you may not be visited by a GP from the surgery and this is to ensure that we see all of our genuinely housebound in a timely manner whilst being able to see those we need to in the surgery too. If you wish to have more information about the Urgent Community Response team, please ask the reception team.

Extended opening hours are provided on Monday evenings 6.30pm to 8.30pm and every 4th Saturday morning. These are for booked appointments only. No emergency provision is available at this time at the surgery, if you require emergency treatment during this time please call 111.

GP Extended Opening Hours Clinics

We would like all patients in our community to be able to see a local GP or Nurse when they need to. We have set up a network of GP Practices across the region offering extended opening hours for pre-bookable routine extended access appointments.  The GP extended opening hours service operates between 6.30pm to 8pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays and allows patients to be seen within a network of GP Practices at a convenient time and location, depending on availability.

All our services are best accessed via an online request.

However you choose to contact us, we may offer you a consultation:

• by phone
• face to face at the surgery
• on a video call
• or we may reply to you by secure text message

Appointments by phone, video call or by text or email can be more flexible and often means you get help sooner.

We have a range of health care professionals working at the practice who may be more appropriate for you to see, rather than the GP. We may offer you an appointment with the team members listed below:

• Nurse
• Nursing Associate
• Health Care assistant
• Physio
• Physician Associate
• Clinical Pharmacist
• Social Prescriber
• Community care coordinator

This is because we want to offer our patients to access the most appropriate service first which is not always the GP. It also means that patients will find it easier to get a GP appointment when they need one.

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else.

To cancel your appointment:

• use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App)
• using the GP online system via the link at the top of this page
• phone us on 01902 372301, Monday to Friday from 8am
• reply CANCEL to your appointment reminder text message

Please tell us:

• if there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to respond
• if you would prefer to consult with the doctor or nurse by phone, face-to-face, by video call or by text or email
• if you need an interpreter
• if you have any other access or communication needs

As a Practice we are required to allocate all patients with a Named GP.

The named GP for newly registered patients will be the GP they are registered to.

This does not prevent any patient from seeing any GP within the practice or change the GP normally seen.