Appointments

steth_pills_diary All routine appointments will be available as on the day telephone consultations. The GP will then decide if a face to face appointment is necessary. This system enables us to deal with more patients on a daily basis. The reception staff are trained to direct you to the most appropriate Health Care Professional and this may not be a GP.

We understand the problems when telephoning the surgery first thing in the morning as this is our busiest time.

We can now offer appointments 08:00 - 20:00, seven days a week. We still operate from the surgery during our core hours [08:30 - 18:30], but we also have a GP based at the new Hub at Buckland Hospital who will see patients from 08:00 - 20:00 for any acute [new/urgent] problems. Please use the usual surgery number & an appointment convenient to you will be booked for you, or alternatively you can call into the surgery to book.

Need a note for your employer due to isolating because of coronavirus?

Urgent Problems

Appointment requests where either the patient or the reception staff feel the need is more urgent are now passed directly to one of the doctors or practice nurse so that a skilled professional can properly establish patient’s needs. This assessment will take form of a telephone consultation. If the doctors or practice nurse require you to be seen at the surgery they will give you a time to attend surgery the same day

As requests made by patients often do not require a doctor’s appointment the receptionist are trained to ask simple questions to direct enquiries to the best source of help to address the needs of the moment. They are required to establish whether a patients’ request is for an urgent matter, a more routine matter or is an administrative request. To do this they are required to ask a number of simple questions, but are not required to make medical decisions.

Practice Nurses

We have four highly qualified nurses and a phlebotomist who are all trained to carry out a wide range of tests and procedures. You can see the nurses by appointment for such services as cervical smears, blood pressure checks, diabetic checks, baby/childhood immunisations and foreign travel vaccinations.