What You Can Do To Help Us
Your practice tries very hard to meet the needs of all patients.
We need your help to do this.
Do you need to see the doctor or nurse, or could you simply speak to them?
Most practices now offer telephone consultations.
The busiest times for incoming telephone calls in the Practice is between 8 – 10am – if your call is not urgent please leave it until the afternoon, when the lines are quieter.
The average practice may receive between 100 – 200 telephone calls between 8 and 10am.
It is helpful though if home visits are requested early in the day, if possible. This enables the GPs to prioritise the home visits and makes planning far easier.
Please cancel appointments that are no longer required as these can then be used for another person.
Most appointments are booked at 15 minute intervals, some patients need longer than this and some need less time.
Our GP’s run a system on one problem per appointment. This then allows the GP to thoroughly go through the issues and action them appropriately without the need to rush though and potentially miss something or run behind in the clinic.
Advice and self help
It is estimated that every year 50 million people visit their GPs for minor ailments such as coughs, colds, mild eczema and athlete’s foot. By visiting your local pharmacy you could save yourself time and trouble.
If you are looking for information or advice you could ring NHS 111 (you simply dial 111) and they can offer help and advice or tell you the best place to get the information you are looking for.
There are some good websites which give excellent information for patients and help with symptom checking such as NHS.uk or Patient.
Keep your contact details up to date, especially phone numbers. A contact email address and mobile phone number is always helpful.
Medication
Only order the medication you require. Some patients order too much and “stock pile”. This is estimated to waste £300 million per year, this means that this money cannot be spent on medications or treatments which could help other patients. Take your medication as prescribed (over 20% of patients do not!). If you have concerns about your medication or are not happy to take what is prescribed to you, discuss this with your GP.
If your repeat medications are not synchronised, ask for them to be aligned. This will help you, but will also help the practice.
Many practices have the facility to order regular medication via the Practice website. This will be easier for you and will also help us to provide a better service.
Urgent or Emergency Care
If you have a life threatening emergency, then the appropriate course of action is to dial 999 or go to the nearest Accident and Emergency Dept.
For urgent medical problems you can dial 111 (now called NHS 111) or when your practice is open, phone them, be prepared to give details of your problem. If there is an urgent medical problem the Practice will see you the same day and in a timescale that is appropriate to your medical problem.
Accident and Emergency Departments are there to treat people with serious problems or problems that cannot be dealt with by general practice.
Remember the experts are your GPs, many doctors who work in A&E Departments will be far less experienced than your GP.