Appointments

Appointment System - Clinical Assessment with a Practitioner

The modern way of delivering health care, means that your health issue will be dealt with by the most appropriate health care professional. Initial consultations with a practitioner will be offered for new presentations as well as ongoing symptoms for the majority of patients. These are face to face appointments where an experienced medical opinion would be instantly available, preventing the need for patients to book further appointments on another day.

Therefore, in order to ensure you are treated as quickly as possible in the most appropriate manner, we ask patients to give a brief description of their problem to the receptionist. The receptionists have all received training in this and follow written guidelines.

If you prefer not to discuss your symptoms with a receptionist, that is entirely your prerogative to do, but this may mean you are inappropriately booked with the incorrect clinician meaning you may have to return a second time. We do offer online booking of appointments where the patient can enter the reason for their appointment in the booking confirmation box. 

Receptionists are bound by our code of confidentiality and will not discuss your symptoms with anyone else.

Please contact the practice on the day you are available to be seen.

How The New System Works – Making an Appointment

You can make an appointment with a clinician in the following ways;

Telephone the practice in the usual way on 01472 697257 and the Receptionist will ask you for further information regarding your appointment request, and direct you to the most appropriate service or book you an assessment with a clinician.

Book an assessment appointment online using Systmone Online. If you need to register for online access, please speak to a member of the Reception Team.

Use the smartphone app with your online registration details either via systmone online or https://florey.accurx.com/p/B81015 or your NHS APP

To see or speak to a GP

To see a GP, you will booked a telephone call back, the GP will assess whether you need be seen and, if so, how quickly.

By having a clinician talk to patients, we are able to offer a service that assesses patients on a clinical priority basis and give patients appointment lengths that more closely match their needs. This not only gives patients a better service individually but enables patients to specify their clinician of choice, thus improving continuity of care.

If you prefer not to discuss your symptoms with a receptionist, that is entirely your prerogative, but doing so allows the GP to assess how quickly you need to be contacted by them and will ensure you are dealt with in a timely manner.

Appointments with the Practice Nurses and Healthcare Assistant and Phlebotomists are still booked in the same way; in advance through reception.

Please note: Our busiest times for telephones are 8am to 10am so please do not feel you must call at this time as appointments will be available throughout the day.  Please help us help you by providing as much information as possible to the receptionist. This will enable us to prioritise your call appropriately.

Ear Syringing

Simple ear syringing is not routinely offered on the NHS [Earwax build-up - NHS (www.nhs.uk)]. Earwax usually falls out on its own. If it does not and it blocks your ear, put 2 to 3 drops of medical grade olive or almond oil in your ear 3 to 4 times a day, for as long as it takes to dissolve the wax. You should only seek help from your GP practice if you have more serious issues / are unable to clear the earwax, as they may be able to refer you to a specialist micro suction service.

You may be able to get the oil under the minor ailments scheme at any pharmacy if you are eligible

Cancellations

If you cannot keep your appointment please notify the surgery as soon as possible.  You can also cancel your appointment using our on-line services.  Non-attendance of appointments has been a significant problem for some time.  As I’m sure you can appreciate we do take non-attendance seriously and persistent missed appointments without notice may result in you being removed from our practice register.

Late Arrivals

The practice politely request you attend on time, patient will not be seen if 5 minutes or more, later than the appointment time as this causes a knock on delay.  Whilst we are aware WE do sometimes run behind our self's this is usually due to a presentation that requires urgent treatment or longer than the average slot, and apologise in advance if we have to ask you to wait.