Getting the Most Out of Your Appointment

The surgery can now offer a mixture of appointment types including telephone, face to face, video consultations and e-consultations via the practice website.

Please do not be abusive to the receptionists. They are trying to help and can only offer what’s available

If you have symptoms that could be due to the coronavirus such as a fever, cough or loss of taste/smell then please tell the receptionist. If we need to see you in person, we can do so in a separate part of the building away from the waiting room.

Weather permitting please try to wear loose/light clothing to your appointment in case the doctor/nurse needs to examine you.

Think carefully about what you want to say at the appointment. How long have you had your symptoms? Does anything you do make it better or worse? What treatments have you tried? What are you worried the problem might be?

Please bear in mind an appointment is just 10 minutes. In this time the doctor/nurse has to take a careful history, examine you, make a potential diagnosis, consider if any tests are needed, inform you about the condition, detail how to take the treatment and any side effects and when you should reconsult. If we are asked to deal with 3 separate problems, that’s just over 3 minutes per problem which is rarely enough time to do the above steps properly. Rushing this process could cause us to miss something important which may lead to poorer outcome for you.

If you have more than one problem to discuss, subject to availability we may be able to offer a 20 minute appointment.

If you’re unsure whether all your symptoms are one or separate problems, tell us what’s concerning you and we’ll assess whether it’s likely to be one or several conditions. We can prioritise what’s most important. If we need more time we may book you an additional appointment.

Please be patient with us. We’ll do our best to run to time but sometimes a patient needs that little bit longer.