HOW TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT WITH YOUR ALCHESTER MEDICAL GROUP DOCTOR

HOW PATIENTS MAKE APPOINTMENTS WITH THEIR ALCHESTER MEDICAL GROUP DOCTOR

  • Our GP services can be booked by contacting us on any working day - this is for both routine and urgent matters. For the new system to be successful in improving access to your usual doctor, and to be fair to all patients, we must ask you to carefully follow these instructions.

SETTING OUT TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT

  • First, check which days your own GP will be working - this can be found on our website by clicking HERE.  
  • To obtain an appointment, either call or complete an online eConsult form during the morning BEFORE 12:30pm, on a day when your GP is working, and you will be added on to their list for the day. When any calls are received after 12:30, for non-urgent matters, the caller will be asked to ring back on the next morning that their GP is working.
  • You will be added to your GP’s list - this is a numbered list, and so you will not be given a set time for your booked appointment. However, once you have a confirmed and booked appointment, you can be sure that your GP will call you sometime later that day.
  • Your GP will try to call the phone number that you have given THREE times only. If you do not answer,  your GP will then send a text (if it’s a mobile number), to advise that they will not be able to make any further attempts to call, and that you will need to contact us again following the procedure above.  A voicemail message may be left for you if the number you supplied is not a mobile number, and where a text therefore cannot be sent.
  • If the GP decides there is a need to see you in person in the surgery, this will normally be on the same day as your telephone consultation. You may not directly book a face-to-face appointment.
  • You can book onto your GP’s list by phoning the surgery following the procedure above, or by completing an eConsult form, which can be found on our website, BEFORE 12:30 on a day that your GP is working. Please note that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the option to book an appointment online via Patient Access has been suspended.  
  • Please do not email. We no longer accept emails to the practice email address regarding clinical matters, unless your GP has specifically asked you to communicate in this way.
  • GPs will no longer be booking follow-up appointments - if you are advised that a follow-up appointment is necessary, you be given a time frame in which to contact your GP. To book this follow-up appointment, please call us again using the above procedure after the timeframe specified by your GP. Your GP will not be sending a reminder for a follow up - it is YOUR responsibility to contact us.

IF YOU NEED AN URGENT APPOINTMENT

  • If you feel your issue cannot wait until your GP is next in surgery, you are still able to call on any working day. In this situation we ask you to call as early as possible, after 8am when the phone lines open or eConsult.
  • As with our previous telephone triage system, our Patient Co-ordinator team will ask for more information about your problem, and signpost you to the most appropriate person to help with it. This could be a GP, our Emergency Care Practitioner, or self-care advice through community pharmacists, etc. It is vital that you give the Patient Co-ordinator as much information as possible, as this is passed to the doctor who can prioritise accordingly.
  • The GP will provide an initial telephone assessment and will only ask you to attend the surgery if they consider it is appropriate for your condition.  

For days when your usual GP is not working, if your problem is not felt to be urgent by either our Patient Co-ordinator team, or by the GP whose list you are allocated to on the day, we will ask you to call back when your usual GP is next at work. We ask that you adhere to this request so we can provide the best service and care to all of our patients, prioritising those with greatest medical need.

Alchester Medical Group

1 June 2020

Click here to download a pdf for printing out this information.

Published: Jun 1, 2020