Appointments
Routine appointments
All Doctors’ appointments are made by telephoning the surgery in the morning between 8.00 and 8.30am on the day you wish to be seen or spoken to by a GP. Appointments are for 10 minutes and for one problem only. We do not offer double appointments or multiple appointments on the same day. Appointments are allocated on a first come, first served basis, so it is advisable to ring early to avoid disappointment.
The clinical coordinators will ask you a set of questions to ensure you are directed to the appropriate clinician or service when making this appointment.
Appointments made for nurses are booked in advance, you can ring the surgery to pre-book nurse appointments as long as they have been requested by a GP.
We now have a limited number of appointments available to book online through the NHS App. These are for both face to face and telephone consultations for the following services:
- Women’s Health – HRT / Contraception etc.
- Cervical Smear Screening (Face to Face only)
- Medication Reviews
In addition, we now have a limited number of appointments available to book online through the NHS App to see a GP or Advanced Nurse Practitioner for a face to face appointment. These appointments will be released for booking 24 hours before the appointment day/time.
Telephone Consultation
We now offer telephone consultations each morning. These are for matters that you feel can be dealt with over the telephone without the need to attend the surgery. These can pre booked in advance or on the day by ringing before 8.30am.
We will ask you for a phone number and give you a slot time of morning or afternoon. The doctor will ring you back on the given number when they are able to. Please be aware we do NOT give specific times for telephone consultations as we cannot always guarantee the Doctor will ring you at a specific time due to possible unplanned emergencies. The Doctor will attempt to ring you up to two times, should you miss both calls you will be required to re-book your appointment; so please keep your telephone switched on and within easy reach.
Urgent appointments
Our practice offers emergency Appointments both in the morning and afternoon however these are for EMERGENCIES ONLY.
Only you can determine if you are experiencing a medical emergency or not. As a practice we would class a medical emergency as something that NEEDS to be dealt with within 6 hours and cannot under any circumstances wait until the next day.
If you request an emergency appointment a receptionist will give you a time and you must be able to make that time, we also advise you of a potential waiting time this does not mean you can turn up late to your emergency appointment.
If you attend an emergency appointment and the GP does not class this appointment as an emergency they may ask you to leave and ring at 8am the next day and this may go on your record.
If you do request an emergency appointment the admin team are now required to ask you a set of questions to triage this emergency appointment.
Please only request an emergency appointment if it is an emergency, we are very limited on appointments and it is unfair on those who may NEED to be seen on the same day.
Cancelling your appointment
It is the responsibility of the patient to attend appointments made with the surgery and to cancel any no longer required, please remember to cancel your appointment through the NHS App if you can no longer attend, alternatively you may cancel by emailing whitwickrd.surgery@nhs.net or by calling the practice.
By cancelling appointments that are no longer needed, this helps the surgery to offer sooner appointments to other patients in need. Failing attend for your appointment or not cancelling is a serious waste of an appointment and our clinician’s time.
