Appointments

Ring your usual surgery to book an appointment at either our main practice or one of our two branch surgeries. The receptionist will routinely ask you for a brief reason for your appointment.  This is to ensure that you are booked in with the appropriate clinician and given the correct length of appointment.

We now offer early morning, late evening and ‘same day’ appointments, as well as pre-bookable appointments. To access a ‘same day’ appointment you need to telephone the surgery at 08:30. You can expect to see a GP within two working days, though you may have to wait longer if you want to see a particular GP.

A doctor can be contacted at all times by telephoning your usual surgery number.  A doctor will see you in surgery by appointment:  this system is intended to reduce the time you have to wait and your co-operation is essential to make the system work. 

Appointments are 10 minutes and for one problem only; if you need more time then please tell the receptionist. 

Nurses based in our practice treat patients for a wide range of common conditions.

• Tell us if you are in a telephone box. We will ring you back. Say immediately if your call is an emergency.
• If more than one person in the family needs to be seen, please be advised that separate appointments will need to be made.
• Tell us if you want someone to accompany you during an examination or a private room to discuss any matters. Remember that the results of tests can only be given to the patient.
• You can book to have a telephone consultation with a doctor although any time you are given will be indicative only.  Please specify which telephone number you wish the Doctor to contact you on. 

You can help us by:

• Being on time for your appointment
• Letting us know if you need to cancel.  Please only email cancellations if your consultations is more than 24 hours in the future.  If you appointment is in less than 24 hours, please call and let us know. 
• Calling for a home visit or urgent appointment before 10.00am
• Ringing for the results of tests after 11.00am

Reception

Our reception teams have been trained to deal with all your enquiries.  The receptionists make appointments, deal with queries, repeat prescription requests, home visit requests and operate the practice computer system.  Our receptionists will have to ask for details of your condition in order to assess the degree of urgency.  All information is dealt with in complete confidence.  To cover our long opening hours we operate a shift system for receptionist to provide optimum cover at all times.  Unfortunately, delays may still occur at peak times and we ask for your patience should you have to wait for attention.

Home Visits

If possible please try to telephone reception before 10:00 if you require a home visit.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the surgery.

Telephone consultations

If you would like to speak to a doctor or nurse, but feel that your issue can be dealt over the telephone, please contact the receptionist at your usual surgery and she will arrange a time for you to speak to the doctor on the phone.

Consent

Patients of Channel View Medical practice are cared for by multi-disciplinary teams which consist of GPs, practice nurses, practice staff, Midwives, Health Visitors and members of the coastal Community Nursing Team and social care.

There are times when we need to discuss your care needs with this wider team to deliver the best possible health care for you.

Unless you specifically refuse to allow us to discuss your care needs, we assume your consent for this.  Indeed, this has been usual custom in the past but now it is considered best practice to give written notice of this.  If you wish to refuse, please advise the practice manager.  However, please consider this carefully as it may adversely affect the quality and standard of care which we can offer you