Urgent appointments
If you feel your medical concern cannot wait, you can either:
- Complete our online consultation form; Klinik. This helps us to triage symptoms and can help us to prioritise patient needs and inform you when to call 111, 999 or attend A&E if necessary.
- Call the surgery as soon as possible between 8am-6.30pm, so that your needs can be assessed.
We will use the information you give us to choose the most suitable healthcare professional to help you.
Routine appointments
Most of our appointments open from 10am for the next working day. However, we also offer appointments up to 30 days in advance.
To book a routine appointment:
- Visit your NHS App or alternative Online Service Platform
- Call the surgery at 10am and choose Option 1
- Complete our online consultation form; Klinik
We will use the information you give us to choose the most suitable healthcare professional to help you; this could include the Physiotherapist, Pharmacist, Physician Associate or a referral to a local Pharmacy who are trained to advise and treat many minor conditions.
Appointments with other clinical staff can be booked up to 1 month in advance by calling the surgery during our opening hours:
- Nurse
- Physiotherapist
- Pharmacist
- Health Care Assistant
- Social Prescriber
Extended Access
The Extended Access Service provides GP, Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP), Nurse and HCA appointments Monday- Friday evenings and Saturday day time.
All clinicians will have basic access to your medical records to be better able to assist you. They are also able to prescribe, send for tests and make referrals if necessary. This service is simply an extension to the service we provide at the practice.
All GP and ANP appointments will be telephone triaged initially. A face to face appointment will then be offered if deemed clinically necessary. Patients will also be able to request a face to face appointment and this can be arranged.
Patients can also book, cancel or reschedule an appointment in the enhanced access service by contacting the:
Single Point of Access (SPA) on: 0203 839 7513, which is open 7 days a week, from 10am to 8pm.
Online Consultations
Save yourself time by completing an online consultation form. This is open between 12pm Sundays-10pm Fridays. We aim to review submissions within 48 working hours. You may be asked to submit a photo, and advice can be provided via text or email or you may be offered a telephone or face to face appointment.
SELF CARE / PHARMACY FIRST
If you have a minor ailment such as a cough or cold, ear ache, temperature, hay fever, back ache, the list goes on! You don’t have to see a GP in the first instance. Visit Your Health, NHS111 online or your local pharmacy for information and advice on how to self manage your condition. All services will be able to tell you when to seek advice from a GP or to seek more urgent help.
The benefits of using these services rather than seeing a GP in the first instance are:
- You will learn about your condition, how to better prevent and manage it in the future
- You can get same day advice and treatment
- You won’t have to wait for long periods of time on the phone trying to book and appointment with the GP, having to take time off work or wait to receive a phone call once you have booked an appointment
About pharmacists
As qualified healthcare professionals, pharmacists can offer advice on minor illnesses such as:
- coughs
- colds
- sore throats
- tummy trouble
- aches and pains
They can also advise on medicine that you can buy without a prescription.
Many pharmacies are open until late and at weekends. You do not need an appointment.
Most pharmacies have a private consultation room where you can discuss issues with pharmacy staff without being overheard.
SPECIALISED SERVICES and SELF REFERRING in the COMMUNITY
There are more specialised services out there to help patients as well, and provide quicker and more suitable care than what a GP can provide, such as:
- Minor Eye Conditions Service: Optometrists are better equipped and have access to tests that are not available in a GP Practice to be able to mange your eye condition. Click here for more information, and to see where you can access these services locally.
- Physiotherapy: If you have back, neck or shoulder pain, a sports injury, movement problems due to a long term condition, need rehabilitation after a heart attack or support with breathing due to having COPD or cystic fibrosis, you can cut out the middle man (GP) and Self-refer to a physiotherapist to help you.
- Talking Therapies: Provide mental health support and well being. They can provide support with many conditions including: Feeling low or depressed, anxious, stressed or panicky, problems with low self-esteem, problems dealing with a traumatic life event, obsessions and compulsions, minor eating disorders etc. By self referring to these services it can speed up the support you need by cutting out waiting to see a GP first
- Community Dental Services: Dentists are specially trained in the help and care of your mouth. Examples include: trauma, bleeding gums, minor cuts, bruises on the lips, lumps and bumps, ulcers, blisters, pain in your jaw etc. They have access to equipment and tests that GPs do not, in order to provide you with the best care and advice. Click here to find your nearest Dental Practice.
- Mental Health Crisis Response Service: patients will be able to call 111 and select option 2, putting them through to a fully trained and qualified mental health professional team. The team has a wide range of skills, including on-the-phone brief psychological support and has access to key services and organisations that can offer mental health support to people in their time of need. If service users are known to ELFT or NELFT services, they should continue to contact their service in the ways they had been doing so previously during working hours. Those wishing to contact a mental health professional outside of hours – or those who aren’t previously known to services – should contact 111 and select option 2.
SOCIAL PRESCRIBING
Not all problems can be fixed by doctors or medicine alone. Worries regarding home life, money, work, housing issues, being or needing a carer, migrant/refugee/asylum seeker support are just a few areas which often need someone who is aware of all the services and support that is available out there at a community level, to be able to help you. These people are not GPs but Social Prescribers. They have up to date information and have the time and ability to support you in a way that suits you. Click here for more information on what a Social Prescriber does. To see a Social Prescriber, please call the surgery during our working hours and speak to one of our receptionists.
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 0208 475 8500, 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
- we will try to accommodate your preferred clinician if they are available.
- Abdominal symptoms, Ear symptoms and Lumps and Bumps are usually booked as a face to face consultation in the first instance, other medical concerns will usually be booked as a telephone consultation. If a face to face appointment is needed after your telephone appointment, this will be arranged accordingly.
Home visits
If you require a home visit, please call the surgery as early as possible. Your call will be logged by the Receptionist and once the clinician has reviewed the request, you will be contacted the same day with next steps.
Urgent Care Centre
If your injury is not serious, you can get help from a minor injuries unit (MIU) or urgent care centre (UCC), rather than going to an A&E department. This will allow A&E staff to concentrate on people with serious, life-threatening conditions and will save you a potentially long wait.
Minor injuries units and urgent care centres can treat:
- sprains and strains
- broken bones
- wound infections
- minor burns and scalds
- minor head injuries
- insect and animal bites
- minor eye injuries
- injuries to the back, shoulder and chest
Minor injuries units and urgent care centres cannot treat:
- chest pain
- breathing difficulties
- major injuries
- problems usually dealt with by a GP
- stomach pains
- gynaecological problems
- pregnancy problems
- allergic reactions
- overdoses
- alcohol related problems
- mental health problems
- conditions likely to require hospital admission