Appointments
First of all have you considered using eConsult? Read more about eConsult below:
Telephone: 01244 680169
The surgery is open 8.00am - 6.30pm Monday to Friday and patients are seen by appointment only. The telephone is often busy early in the morning, so if your call is routine, please ring later in the day.
The current appointment system allows patients to access a doctor or nurse on the day they wish to be seen or by booking in advance. This has removed the waiting time altogether and means that far less appointments are lost to people not attending each week.
Phone on the day you need to be seen.
With nearly 7500 patients and the equivalent of 4 full time doctors, demand for appointments is enormous.
When you phone the surgery please explain what it is you need, be this a:
- Doctor telephone appointment (currently all GP appointments will begin as a telephone appointment - should a face to face appointment be needed this will be arranged by the GP)
- Nurse appointment
- Nurse telephone advice
50% of our doctors appointments are available to book ‘on the day’ so that you do not have to plan your visit to the surgery weeks in advance. However at time of high demand/low doctor availability, these on the day appointments may be strictly for urgent appointments only, and you may be asked to prebook or phone another day. (Please be aware Monday Mornings are usually our highest demand day.)
50% of our doctors appointments are available to be booked up to two weeks in advance. All of the nurses appointments are available to be booked up to two months in advance.
Please note if you feel your problem is CLINICALLY URGENT tell the receptionist and you will be fitted in that day, if reception have run out of face to face appointments, please accept a call from our Duty Doctor who will triage you as best as they can, this can include squeezing you in for a face to face appointment.
eConsult
An easier way to receive advise and treatment can be accessed by using eConsult: https://handbridgemedcentre.webgp.com/ (you need to be a registered patient with us to use this service, but no log in is required) your symptoms can be sent through to a GP review / or you may be give self help advice, depending on what symptoms/issues you report. Doctors can arrange for you to have blood tests, prescriptions and referrals via eConsult.
Booking online
Appointments are currently not available to be booked online (due to the pandemic) but we hope to be able to re-offer this service in the future.
Appointments will then be bookable up to two weeks in advance. This will be done via Patient access on the following link https://patient.emisaccess.co.uk/account/login.
Please note you do need to obtain registration details from the reception desk before being able to use the online services. Please also ensure you have checked the booking conditions prior to booking.
Monday Mornings
Please bare in mind that the busiest time of the week is on Monday morning. If your problem is not urgent it would be helpful if you would choose another time or day to telephone. The telephones and reception desk may be busy when you call, please be patient, we will help you as soon as possible. If you are unable to keep your appointment please remember to let us know so that someone else can be seen.