Appointment Information

Ways to Book

Non-urgent advice: Having Problems?

Non-urgent advice:

The phone lines are particularly busy first thing in the mornings between 08:00 – 10.30. If you do not need an urgent appointment for the same day we would ask if you could call out of these times.

We offer bookable on the day, and urgent appointments of 10 minutes duration. Some appointments with Practice Nurses may be longer, depending on what you are seeing them for.

Non-urgent advice:

The surgery operates a telephone triage service in the mornings from 08:00 whereby you may be offered a telephone consultation with a GP who will generally call you back to discuss your problem and, if necessary, book you in for a face-to-face consultation.

Helping you get the right appointment for your needs 

The reception staff are trained to support you to get the right appointment for your needs and sometimes you might be asked to give information that you would prefer not to share with someone other than a doctor or health professional. It really does help to have this information in order to arrange the right appointment for you.

You may be offered an appointment with a different trained professional who works at the practice rather than a GP if this is the best person to help you. This might be a nurse, a paramedic, a pharmacist, a healthcare assistant or a physiotherapist

If you cannot keep an appointment please let us know as soon as possible so that the time can be allocated to another patient.

Usual GP

All patients registering, and who are registered, with Nuffield House Surgery, are allocated a usual GP.

If you wish to know your usual GP, please ask the receptionist.

However, it does not mean the practice will always be able to offer you an appointment to see your usual GP, as GPs are not available every day the practice is open.


Timekeeping

Please note: If you are more than 10 minutes late for your appointment you may not be seen. The reception is required to inform clinicians when a patient is more than 10 minutes late for an appointment.


Chaperone

A chaperone provides a safeguard for a patient during an examination and protects against verbal, physical, sexual or other abuse for both patient and clinician. Patients have the right to request a chaperone, and staff are available. Friends or family can accompany you, but the clinician has the right to request a chaperone if they feel it necessary. It may, on rare occasions, be necessary to cancel and reschedule the appointment if no chaperones are available.


Patients With Particular Needs

If you have a hearing impairment, we like to allocate more time.  Please let us know on booking an appointment if you require a longer time.  We can also arrange an interpretation service by phone for patients who do not speak English and do not have someone who can interpret for them.  Please let us know prior to your appointment if you need this service.