"Appointment Availability"

Thank you for your comment. We always welcome feedback about the practice.

Non-urgent appointments are currently booking ahead between 4 and 6 weeks currently. This is a direct result of the undisputed fact that demand for services have increased substantially over recent years, whereas the funding and supply of GPs and clinical staff have dwindled.

We do the best we can with limited resources which is why we introduced a triage system a few years ago which is run daily by a GP. If any patient needs to book an appointment to see a GP the same day for a clinically urgent reason they can be placed on teh triage list. They will receive a call back from the on call GP, usually within the hour to discuss their issue. If the GP agrees that it is clinically urgent, they will always be offered a same day appointment. Similary, if a patient needs a non-urgent or follow up appointment and the next avaliable one is considered by them to be too far ahead, they can ask to speak to the on call doctor after asking to go onto the triage list. If the on call doctor agrees they need to be seen sooner, he/she will book them an earlier appointment.

Therefore you can always be confident of getting a medically appropriate appointment. It may not be the convenient appointment date and time you want, but it will be medially appropriate for your needs.

Richard Miller

Practice Manager