Appointments Access Policy
Appointments will be created by the Reception Team in consultation with the GP’s, Health Care Professionals & Practice Manager.
Patients are asked to telephone the Practice, book online or call in to make an appointment with their choice of GP or Health Care Professional.
The Practice offers face to face appointments as well as telephone consultation appointments.
Some appointments will be available via EMIS Patient Access and the NHS App for online booking.
Appointments can also be booked via our triaging service ‘AccuRx online triage’ which is available from the Practice website. Routine medical and administrative requests will be read by a member of the Team within 2 working days.
From time to time, patients may also be sent text messages containing booking links requesting that they book a specific appointment.
The Practice aims to have appointments available for booking up to 4 weeks in advance.
Appointments with the GP are 10 minutes in length. Some nursing appointments will be longer i.e. for annual checks such as Diabetes or Asthma.
We advertise at the Practice that a 10 minute is for one problem only. We request that patients discuss their most important medical concern with the GP during the 10 minute appointment. If you have more than one problem to discuss with the GP and the GP is unable to attend to additional problems at that time then we request that another appointment be booked following your initial appointment.
The clinicians will endeavour to keep to their 10 minute allocation per appointment, although it is often inevitable that some delays may occur where circumstances dictate that more time is needed during a particular consultation.
In certain circumstances, double appointments can be booked but this is only with the agreement of the Doctor or other Health Care Professional.
Appointments will usually be available during the morning, early afternoon and late afternoon.
Each day emergency only appointments will be available for patients with acute conditions which will not wait for the next available appointment. Waiting times should be anticipated. Please note these appointments are not for routine issues such as repeat prescriptions or certificate requests. If you are unsure, please ask at member of our Reception Team. Patients requesting an emergency appointment are unable to specify a choice of GP or Health Care Professional
Patients are expected to notify the practice if they cannot attend for an appointment, or if they know they may arrive late.
Appointments can be cancelled by calling or emailing the practice at reception.nhmc@nhs.net. If the appointment was booked online, it can be cancelled in the same manner.
Patients arriving later than 5 minutes from their appointment time are deemed as late, and it will be at the clinician’s discretion if they are still able to see the patient. The clinical system automatically marks a patient as ‘Did Not Attend’ 5 minutes after the start time of the slot and the patient will not be seen.
Our policy is to offer a fair and transparent appointment system which caters for all patients, no matter what the individual circumstances are.
It is inevitable that due to the Practice circumstances the usual method of booking an appointment may be changed to allow the Practice to manage the demands from patients as well as Practice business needs.
What do I do if I need assistance with language?
We have access to a translation service provider and our Receptionists are able to book translators as well as British Sign Language representatives to assist in your appointment. Please ask our Receptionists for more information.
Why do receptionists ask personal questions?
GP reception staff are skilled professionals and ask questions to make sure you see the right person at the right time and treat all information confidentially. If you don’t want to speak on the phone, please use the AccuRx triaging system, more information is available on the practice website.
I wanted to see my GP, so why am I seeing someone else?
Many GP practices now include a range of professionals like nurses and pharmacists. This means you can often be seen more quickly and not need to be seen by lots of different people.
Where else can I get help?
Always dial 999 in a life-threatening emergency.
Visit www.nhs.uk for advice on common symptoms and a list of local services or speak to your community pharmacist first for advice on minor illnesses nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-pharmacy
Please be kind
GPs and hospitals are under enormous pressure, but we are open and here if needed. Please continue to be kind to our staff, socially distance where possible and wear a face mask in healthcare settings.
Abuse of our staff is never acceptable. The NHS Constitution is clear that violence, or the causing of nuisance or disturbance on NHS premises may result in prosecution or people being refused access to NHS services.