To improve patient access, and in line with our patient's wishes, we have reverted to a full "face-to-face" model of delivering appointments, with telephone consultations by exception only. 

Broadly, around 60% of GP appointments capacity can be booked in advance, and can also be booked online.  These appointments are best suited for routine or less urgent matters, and management of chronic/long-term conditions. 

Around 40% of GP appointments are held for "urgent" or "on-the-day" concerns; these are opened for booking on the morning of that day.  If you require one of these appointments, please contact us early in the day, as these can fill quickly.

Open surgery (drop in) was discontinued in March 2020.

Appointments remain subject to capacity, and capacity is finite; this is to ensure the GPs have sufficient time to manage the contacts they have that day safely.

Home visits are reserved for those patients who are too ill or infirm to get to the surgery. They should not be requested if it is simply too inconvenient to travel to your nearest medical centre.

A doctor can usually see four people in the surgery in the time it takes to do a home visit so please use the service wisely. If you do require a visit please telephone the surgery before 10.00am, except in cases of emergency. This helps us plan visits and enables us to run surgeries more efficiently.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Health Centre.

Please do not abuse this service, as it is reserved for the housebound and in cases of medical emergency

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 will be sent a letter informing you that you have defaulted from your appointment. Persistent defaulters maybe removed from the list.

You can also complete our appointment cancellation notification request form. This can only be used if your appointment has been arranged for more than 24 hours in advance. (excluding weekends and public holidays). You can also text to cancel your appointment.

We have a texting service which allows you to receive confirmation and reminders about your appointments.

If you wish to opt out of these, let us know.

Please remember to update your contact details with us when you change address, telephone numbers and email address.

With local waiting times often quite long it is understandable this is also a source of frustration! Patients commonly want to chase up their appointment times or try and bring them forward. However, we again have no control over the appointment allocation and our secretaries do not have privileged access to the hospital departments. Urgent appointments are offered according to set clinical conditions and consultants will not accept letters from GPs appealing for a particular patient to be pushed up the ladder. We would therefore ask patients to contact the hospital directly if they have enquires about their appointment time or wish to be put on cancellation lists.