We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and in return, expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way.
It is your responsibility to keep your appointments and attend them in a punctual manner. We will do our best to run to time but it is difficult to do this if patients turn up late or insist on having several problems they wish to discuss.
Please inform us, when asked, about your past illnesses, medications, hospital admissions, or any other relevant details. Your NHS patient record invariably contains vast amounts of information and it is not always instantly available or as up-to-date as you may expect. Please do not assume we have all the answers.
Remember your health is your responsibility, we are to help you where we can.
We aim to provide an efficient and reliable service to all of our patients. To achieve this aim we pledge to:
- Deal with telephone and personal enquiries as quickly and efficiently as possible.
- Speak with urgent cases over the telephone; and where needed, organise to get them seen the same day with an appropriate member of the clinical team.
- Take requests for routine appointments and try to make them as convenient as possible for you. (If at a specific time/ site or with a specific doctor, please recognise this may take longer)
- Offer patients the option of a telephone or video consultation as an alternative to a face-to-face appointment.
- Deal with online enquiries in a timely manner.
To help us to help you, please:
- Think before making an appointment… Do you really need to see a doctor?
- Tell the receptionist if you are likely to need more time than a standard appointment, they may be able to arrange longer. Please do not bring a ‘shopping list’ of several problems to your consultation as this will invariably mean, that your consultations will go on for longer than booked, important issues may not get the time they deserve and there will be delays in the waiting room such that everyone else behind you in the queue is inconvenienced.
- Let us know in plenty of time if you cannot keep an appointment so that it can be offered to someone else. If you just don’t turn up, the appointment is wasted.
- Remember, one patient, one appointment. Please do not embarrass yourself or the doctor, by asking them to see someone else during your appointment.
- Take a friend or relative with you if necessary (especially if English language is a barrier- translators are not always available and should be booked in advance wherever possible).
- Please ensure you telephone any home visit requests before 10.00 am so that the doctor can plan their time more effectively. Calls received later than this may be too late for a visit that day.
- Please read the patient notices in the surgery, they contain important information that may be of interest to you. New developments will also be shown on this website.
- Be a polite and courteous patient, and be understanding if there are any unforeseen delays. Don’t forget the last patient may have been a medical emergency, a sick child, or somebody struggling with their mental health.
