Good use of appointments

We are providing more appointments than ever before, however there will always be a limit to how many we can provide due to staffing, funding and room space. You can help by making sure you are using the right service for the right issue AND being prepared for your appointments.

Here are some easy ways you can help:

• Call early in the day to book your appointment (our phone lines open at 8am) and there will be more choices available to you.
• For minor ailments, get help and medication from your pharmacist, if they think you need to see a nurse or doctor they will advise you of this.
• If you don’t need your appointment anymore please let us know so we can give that timeslot to another patient.
• Be on time for your appointment. If you are late it can impact on other patients and you may need to rebook, unnecessarily using up another appointment.
• Let the receptionist know if your appointment is for a new joint or muscle pain as we can book you directly in with a physiotherapist to assess, advise and refer to the right service. This means you don’t need to see a doctor first and you will get expert physio advice sooner.
• Let the receptionist know if you are happy to go to our hub service at Spa Medical, Old Jamaica Road, which is open 8am-8pm, 7 days a week.
• Plan your routine healthcare and book your appointment a few weeks in advance – most issues don’t need to be seen today or tomorrow.
• Plan what you want to speak to the clinician about. See this link for advice on how best to do this: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/gps/what-to-ask-your-doctor/

Together we can help to ease the pressure on the service and make sure that everyone gets the right care for their needs.