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HOW
DO I...
MAKE
AN APPOINTMENT ?
HOW TO SEE A DOCTOR
We value continuity of care and believe that the majority of our patients do so as well. When you register you will normally be registered with one of the partners of the practice, but you will not be restricted to see that doctor.
You may at times want to see another doctor within the practice for a specific problem, or the doctor you normally see may not be available on the day.
Overall we would strongly encourage you to stay with one doctor or maybe two so that they know you and your family well and they can form a good doctor/patient relationship.
The doctor you see may involve another doctor in the practice to deal with your particular problem rather than referring you to hospital, and we provide follow up clinics for many major medical conditions within the practice through our practice nurses.
We encourage our patients to make appointments with our nurse practitioners who deal with “Minor Illness” (please refer to this section). This is a special service that allows faster access to a competent practitioner when you need to see someone urgently.
To make an appointment you need to ring the surgery on 522198 and a recorded message will ask you to press ‘1’ for West Street and ‘2’ for Wootton Bridge.
Currently our Wootton surgery can also be accessed by ringing 883520 however, this number will become unavailable in the near future. Please state whether you need to see your chosen doctor for an ongoing problem or a new problem.
If your problem is urgent you will be seen on the same day or within a few hours if it is an emergency.
Please understand that in this case you will be allocated to the doctor with the next available urgent or emergency appointment.
Follow up appointments in the near future can normally be booked either by the doctor or the receptionist when you leave the surgery. If your follow up appointment is going to be several months ahead please ring for an appointment
closer to that time. We have found that giving follow up appointments a long time ahead leads to a high DNA rate, with an unacceptable waste of precious time.
HOW TO SEE A NURSE
We work with several teams of nurses (nurse practitioners, practice nurses, district nurses, health visitor and midwife). All our nurses have taken on a wider range of roles in managing acute and chronic medical problems. Our nurse practitioners will deal with “Minor Illness” competently and under the supervision of the doctors.
Our practice nurses are specifically trained to deal with a variety of women’s problems, contraception, diabetes and asthma and provide special follow up clinics for a variety of other conditions. They give travel advice and handle the immunisations for both children and adults. They undertake a number of investigations as well as well person checks. The doctor may advise you to see the nurse for follow up, she will then refer you back to the doctor when the need arises. If you have a problem you think the nurse can deal with, please discuss this with our receptionist who will advise you and make the necessary appointment for you. If you wish to see a named nurse for a particular problem please advise our receptionist when booking the appointment.
Our district nursing team is based at our West Street surgery. If you need to contact District Nurse please speak with our receptionist who will make the necessary arrangements for you. Our health visitor provides a clinic in our West Street surgery on Mondays and Wootton Bridge surgery on Thursdays and appointments can be booked through our receptionist.
If you need to speak with the Health Visitor outside of her surgery clinic days please contact her on 520605.
Our midwife provides a clinic in our West Street surgery on Fridays and appointments can be booked through our receptionist.
HOW
DO I...
OBTAIN
A HOME VISIT ?
If you need to see a doctor but are not well enough to get to the surgery, please
be sure to telephone before 11.00am. Please remember a doctor can see six patients
in the surgery in the same time as it takes for one home call. On occasions the
doctor will need the equipment only available in the surgery. Please can you make
every possible effort to get to the surgery using help from a neighbour or a taxi
if necessary. House calls are only available for patients who are medically unable
to come to the surgery. The doctor will decide whether it is appropriate to visit.
GUIDELINES
FOR HOME VISITS
GP VISIT RECOMMENDED
GP home visiting makes clinical sense and is the best way of giving a medical
opinion in cases involving:
GP VISIT MAY BE
USEFUL
After an initial assessment over the telephone, a seriously ill patient may be
helped by a GPs attendance to prepare them for travel to hospital - that is, where
a GP’s other commitments do not prevent them from arriving before the ambulance.
Examples of such situations are:
It must be understood
that if a GP is about to start an emergency surgery in which all patients believe
they are urgent and a call for an urgent visit is made as in the examples above,
it may be in the patient’s interest to call an emergency paramedical ambulance.
GP VISIT IS NOT USUAL
In most of the following cases, to visit would not be an appropriate use of GPs
time:
-
Common
symptoms of childhood: fevers, cold, cough, earache, headache, diarrhoea/ vomiting
and in most cases of abdominal pain. These patients are usually well enough to
travel by car. It is not harmful to take a child with fever outside. These children
may not be fit to travel by bus or walk, but car transport is available from friends,
relatives or taxi firms. It is not a doctor’s job to arrange such transport.
-
Adults
with common problegh, sore throat, influenza, back pain and abdominal
pain are also transportable by car to a doctor’s premises.
-
Common
problems in the elderly, such as poor mobility, joint pain and general malaise,
would also best be treated by consultation at the doctor’s premises. The
exception would be the truly bed-bound patient.
HOW
DO I...
OBTAIN
TEST RESULTS ?
If you have had investigations, the doctor will advise you whether you need to be seen after these or simply phone for results. The receptionist will then advise you whether you need to speak to a doctor or whether the results are normal.
Please phone for results after 2.00pm. Please make sure that you contact us after a blood test or x-ray.
We deal with a large number of results every day some of which relate to tests organised by hospital doctors or other teams. Although we make every effort to ensure that no result is overlooked, nobody is perfect. Please remember that you cannot rely that we will contact you with an abnormal result.
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