When you get in touch, we’ll ask what you need help with.
We will use the information you give us to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or health professional to help you.
Chaperones
We recognise that intimate examinations by health care professionals can be distressing or embarrassing for patients. Wherever possible, you will be offered the security of having a chaperone present.
Please feel free to advise the receptionist in advance of your appointment, if you think this will be the case, and do not hesitate to ask the doctor or nurse for a chaperone if you are not offered this option during your consultation.
If you would prefer to see only a doctor of a specific gender to discuss your medical problem, then again please advise the receptionist of this when booking your appointment.
Your appointment
However you choose to contact us, we may offer you a consultation:
by phone
face to face at the surgery
on a video call
by text or email
Appointments by phone, video call or by text or email can be more flexible and often means you get help sooner.
Cancelling or changing an appointment
To cancel your appointment:
use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App)
phone us on 01225 759850, Monday to Friday from 8am to 6.30pm
reply CANCEL to your appointment reminder text message
If you need help when we are closed
If you need medical help now, use NHS 111 online or call 111.
NHS 111 online is for people aged 5 and over. Call 111 if you need help for a child under 5.
Call 999 in a medical or mental health emergency. This is when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.
If you need help with your appointment
Please tell us:
if there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to respond
if you would prefer to consult with the doctor or nurse by phone, face-to-face, by video call or by text or email
if you need an interpreter
if you have any other access or communication needs
Home visits
We are able to provide a home visit if someone is housebound or genuinely too unwell to come to the surgery.
Home visits are, however, very time consuming and reduce the number of appointments we are able to offer – doctors could see 4 or 5 people in the surgery in the time taken for just one visit. At home we do not have full records and equipment so care is generally better delivered in the surgery.
As a rule, we ask that people come to the surgery whenever possible even if it means asking a relative or friend to bring you or getting a taxi. Children should always be brought to the surgery rather than seen at home.
We are only obliged to visit at home on the grounds of clinical need and not because of difficulties with transport.
If you think you may need a home visit, please call the surgery before 11:00 in the morning. Visits are usually done over lunchtime and requests coming in later in the day are highly disruptive to afternoon surgeries causing inconvenience to other patients. Afternoon visits are therefore reserved for medical emergencies only.
You may be called before someone comes out to visit to see if there is another way to help with your problem.
