"OUTSTANDING! Best GP practice I’ve ever..."

Having moved a number of times to various areas throughout my adult life, I’ve belonged to a number of GP practices. Ballater is by far the best - it’s outstanding.

We are a family of four with two young children aged 6 and 3 at the time of writing.

We’ve been patients at Ballater for 5 years and I’ve NEVER not been seen on the day I’ve needed to see a doctor. The practice runs an extremely efficient triage system whereby you either ring or email (the email system is brilliant as you can send photos of any visual symptoms) before 10am to go on that day’s triage list. The doctor in charge of triage that day will then call you before 11am to discuss on the telephone. They establish whether or not they can deal with your problem without taking up an appointment (and will send an electronic prescription if necessary to your local pharmacy) or will book you in for an appointment at the surgery for the same day. I think the appointments get allocated depending on where you are on the list but I’ve been offered morning appointments which I haven’t been able to make - in these instances Ballater was able to accommodate my request for an afternoon slot on every occasion.

If you miss the triage in the morning you are still able to call in and request a telephone call from a doctor in the afternoon. My children have always been offered a last minute, same day appointment in these circumstances when absolutely necessary.

When you arrive, you never have to wait longer than 10 minutes. It really is very slick.

There is also a general, non-emergent email address which you can use for general health enquiries e.g. I used this to ask about the process of obtaining a referral for my child to see a specialist for a minor ongoing health issue. The practice couldn’t have been more helpful - I was able to pick up the referral letter from reception the next day.

There is also a GP specialising in women’s health (recently appointed) who can carry out minor gynae procedures (e.g. fitting and removal of the coil). This is a great addition to the practice as previously one had to book at another local GP for this type of service.