All appointments continue to be by telephone initially.

If your need is urgent, call 01224 562888 from 8am and a member of our healthcare team will call you back the same day.

In keeping with government guidelines we aim to allow access to a health professional within 48 hours. We guarantee to contact patients with urgent problems on the same day, if the patient considers this to be necessary.

If it is a genuine medical emergency then you should call 999 and ask for an ambulance.  If you need emergency care but are not in imminent danger then you should call 111

Duty clinicians will assess every request for urgent and non-urgent care and decide who needs to be seen in person, who needs a phone consultation, and who can be directed to a community pharmacist, etc.

How do we triage?  Duty clinicians will look at all the information available and make an assessment loosely based on:

• 'Hear it' - phone consult,
• 'Feel it' - face to face appointment

Phone us on 01224 562888, Monday to Friday from 8am

When you get in touch, we’ll ask what you need help with.

We will use the information you give us to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or health professional to help you.

Primary Care – getting the help you need

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

• by phone
• face to face at the surgery
• on a video call
• by text or email

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

To cancel your appointment:

• phone us on 01224 562888, 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

We prefer to see patients in the surgery wherever possible but we recognise that there may be occasions that individuals cannot come to the surgery due to illness or disability. If you do require the Doctor to attend you at your home, please discuss this with the Receptionist when you phone.

If at all possible, please telephone before 9.30am. You will routinely be asked if you can come to the surgery and in certain circumstances a Doctor may call you back to establish further details, including whether it would be more appropriate to send a Nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

Home visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability. You will appreciate that in busy traffic a single home visit can take up to an hour (6 normal appointments). In some circumstances, where the Doctor feels it is more appropriate, you may be asked to attend the surgery.

The Practice is actively involved in the training of medical and nursing students who will become the doctors and nurses of the future.  These students are bound by the same code of confidentiality as doctors and nurses. 

We hope that you will co-operate with us and help the students to learn about general practice.  You will be informed of their presence in advance, and if you do not want them to be present at a consultation, your wishes will be respected. 

This will not affect your treatment in any way.