How to make appointments?

Routine appointments up to 6 weeks ahead to see the Doctor or Nurse can be made by:·

• Attending the surgery reception during opening hours
• Telephoning the surgery during opening hours.

                   0208 914 8823

• Via the website (initially you will need to come into the surgery to register for this service)

Choice of Practitioner

All patients have the right to express a preference for a particular practitioner; this should be stated when speaking to the reception staff at the time of booking. Staff will aim to offer you the next available non-urgent appointment. If your need is more urgent then please tell the staff and they will aim to offer you a sooner appointment but cannot guarantee with which practitioner

If you want a routine appointment please phone after 10.30 when the phone lines are less busy.

Urgent appointments

If you feel that your problem cannot wait until the appointment offered to you please tell the receptionist. She will then try and see if you can be fitted in earlier. If the problem is perceived to be so urgent that you need to be seen the same day please ring as soon after 8.00am as possible; either you will be fitted in to a routine surgery or offered an appointment in the Emergency Surgery which is only available for medical emergencies that cannot wait until the following day, when all other available appointments for the day have been filled.

Dental Problems

Please note we DO NOT deal with dental problems. Please contact your dental surgery.

For emergency dental treatment please contact either your dentist or Bromley PCT 020 8776 3685 or Kings/Guys Hospital 020 8299 5509 and you will be given details of how to access dental services out of hours

Did Not Attends (DNA's)

Each year at least 1000 patients do not keep their booked appointments. This equates to one whole 3-hour surgery each week or 2 days of a doctors time per month or almost 5 weeks of a doctors time a year. Time that could otherwise be used to improve services for you. Please be considerate, if you are unable to keep an appointment then please inform us so that we can use that appointment for someone else.

Home Visits

If a patient requires a consultation with a doctor but is too ill to attend the surgery then we will arrange for him/her to be seen at home, however we would be grateful if a request for a Home Visit could be made before 10.30 a.m.

We would respectfully remind patients that at all times if they could make every effort to attend the Surgery in order to see the doctor. Home Visits should be strictly for the elderly and housebound and for people with a serious illness who are unable to attend for consultation at the Surgery.

In general your Registered Doctor will perform the Home Visit unless he or she is away from the surgery. In some instances the doctor may feel it is appropriate to telephone you and offer advice rather than visit. Equally the doctor may arrange for another member of the Primary care team such as the District Nurse to visit rather than the doctor.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Health Centre.

GP registrars

Our Practice is a recognised and accredited training practice and has been so since training in General Practice was born. In fact the practice has had a tradition of training other doctors even before training was formalised and stems back 30 years. In order to be registered as a training practice a high standard of practice has to be reached. The training is of a postgraduate nature and involves training fully qualified doctors for General Practice. Theses doctors are referred to as GP registrars and work in conjunction with one of the partners. A GP registrar will usually spend 12 months with us although it may be less, depending on their previous experience.

HINTS AND TIPS ON APPOINTMENT BOOKING

We aim to offer appointments 4-8 weeks in advance; if your need is not urgent we recommend that you book ahead so that you are more likely to get the clinician and time of choice. If you ask to see a particular clinician the reception staff will offer you the next available free slot unless you specify a date.

If your need is urgent please make this clear and we will offer you the soonest appointment with a clinician but in this instance we cannot guarantee which clinician that will be.

Routine appointments are between 8.00am and 6.00pm but we also offer early morning appointments on Weds & Thurs and late evenings on Tues, Weds & Thurs to try and fit around working hours.

If you see the GP and they ask you to come back for a follow up after a certain period of days/weeks please visit the reception desk ON YOUR WAY OUT to book this rather than call on the day you are supposed to come when you may be disappointed by availability.

If you see a clinician for a particular ailment please try to see the same GP for any follow up to give you continuity of care. This is good clinical practice and we believe it is in the best interests of our patients and their GP. (See above re follow up appointments).

Could your problem be dealt with by a telephone consultation? Some of the clinicians offer these to save you time and effort in unnecessarily attending the surgery. Reception can advise you on availability.