APPOINTMENTS

To maximize our appointment availability, we have introduced a more diverse mix of clinicians including nurse practitioners, advanced clinical practitioner, pharmacist, pharmacy technician as well as our team of doctors, practice nurses and healthcare assistants.

We also have access to and support from many services provided by colleagues from other organisations. Increasingly it is possible to access these services without the need to see a doctor for a referral. This avoids the need to take up an unnecessary appointment and reduces the overall waiting time.

APPOINTMENTS - Is a doctor (GP) the best choice to assist you?

If you have chest pain or your complaint is an emergency – dial 999/attend A+E straight away.

Before you contact us to book an appointment, please consider the following:

1. Can my problem be self-managed? Please see our self-help page for useful information.
2. Can I self-refer myself directly to the most appropriate service? Please see our self-referral page for more details.
3. Please ask a member of our admin team if they can help to sort out your enquiry. Our admin team is often able to help and this may save the need for you to attend for an appointment.
4. If you do need an appointment, please give the admin team as much information as possible, so they can book you in with the correct clinician.
5. If you think your problem can be dealt with over the telephone, please advise us so that we can arrange a suitable telephone consultation. If you think your problem is so serious that it needs to be dealt with today, please tell us so that we can arrange for someone to call you back the same day.
6. If your problem is less urgent, you may have to wait for the next routine appointment. However, if the problem worsens and becomes urgent, please let us know.

REMEMBER TO ATTEND FOR YOUR APPOINTMENT

We realise that many of our appointments are booked several weeks in advance. Please remember to attend. If you have a mobile phone, we will send you an appointment confirmation text at the time you book your appointment, followed by a reminder text approximately 24 hours before your scheduled appointment.

IF YOU NO LONGER NEED YOUR APPOINTMENT, PLEASE REMEMBER TO CANCEL IT 

If you have online access, you can cancel an appointment online. Alternatively, you can telephone the practice and select the option to cancel an appointment. You will hear a recorded message, after which you should leave your name and details of the appointment you wish to cancel.

If you fail to attend for an appointment, you may receive a letter from us explaining the problems this causes and the need for improvement. If you fail to attend repeatedly, we will ask you to meet with us to discuss the problem further.

Before you contact us to book an appointment, please read this to see if there is a more appropriate way of dealing with your problem.

Managing Your Appointment

If you want to contact us by phone please ring:

Moss Valley - 01246 439101

Gosforth Valley - 01246 419040

Appointments are for 10 minutes and are for one patient only. Although you are registered with a specific doctor, you may see any available doctor or nurse within the practice. This means that you can choose to see someone in the practice who has a special interest in your type of condition.

Sometimes a doctor has to leave the surgery because of an emergency. If this happens, we may ask you to wait, see another doctor or make another appointment.

Attending for your appointment

We have a patient check-in system which allows you to avoid queuing at reception when attending the practice for booked appointments.  It is easy to use: just follow the step by step guide on the screen.

We operate an appointment system and try to see patients on time, although there will be times when the doctor is running a little late.

Unfortunately as a result of late attendances and the adverse impact this has on the practice, we may be unable to honour your appointment if you arrive more than 5 minutes late. If you think you may struggle to arrive on time for an appointment, please let us know as soon as possible. It may be necessary for you to re-book another alternative appointment.

Please inform us if you are unable to keep an appointment as often it could be offered to somebody else.

If you have online access, you can cancel an appointment online. Alternatively, you can telephone the practice and select the option to cancel an appointment. You will hear a recorded message, after which you should leave your name and details of the appointment you wish to cancel. If you fail to attend for an appointment, you may receive a letter from us explaining the problems this causes and the need for improvement. If you fail to attend repeatedly, we will ask you to meet with us to discuss the problem further.

One person & one problem please...

In order to aid the smooth running of our Practice we advise you:

• To avoid ‘squeezing’ in other members of your family into your appointment slot.
• Try not to save several problems for one appointment—if there are several concerns that you need to discuss, please book a double appointment.
• Always discuss the most urgent / serious problem first.

Advice by phone

We are happy to give advice over the phone. Call the surgery and request a routine telephone appointment with the doctor or practice nurse. We will offer you the next available routine telephone appointment, although this is unlikely to be the same day, unless it is for an urgent problem.

Chaperones

It is the policy of this practice to respect the privacy and dignity of our patients.

If you would like a chaperone to be present during a physical examination by a doctor, or any other health professional you may be consulting at the surgery or if you would prefer to be examined by a doctor or health professional of the same sex as yourself, please let us know and we will do our best to comply with your wishes. 

Home Visits

Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and facilities available, we do appreciate this is not always possible. In this respect, if you do need a home visit, you can help us by calling reception before 10:00.

You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed. Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls

You can also be visited at home by a community nurse or another member of the community team if you are referred by your GP.

Sickness Certificates

You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. Your employer may however require you to complete a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website.

Evidence that you are sick

If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to give them some form of medical evidence to support payment of SSP (statutory sick pay).

It is up to your employer to decide whether you are incapable of work. A medical certificate, now called a 'Statement of Fitness for Work’ (see below) from your doctor is strong evidence that you are sick and would normally be accepted, unless there is evidence to prove otherwise.

You could also provide evidence from someone who is not a medical practitioner, e.g. a dentist. Your employer will decide whether or not this evidence is acceptable. If your employer has any doubts, they may still ask for a medical certificate from your GP.

Statement of Fitness for Work - ’Fit Note'

The 'fit note' was introduced on 6 April 2010. With your employer's support, the note will help you return to work sooner by providing more information about the effects of your illness or injury.

For more information see the DirectGov website (where this information was sourced).

Training Doctors at The Valleys Medical Partnership

We are an approved training practice for qualified doctors who want experience in general practice and we are assessed regularly by the Regional Committee for General Practitioners and have doctors at various stages of their careers working within the practice, as well as medical students. All the partners in The Valleys Medical Partnership are fully qualified and experienced GP trainers and help to train and supervise the various types of learners.

Foundation Doctors:

These are fully qualified doctors who come to work in the practice for 4 months at a time. 

Foundation 1 (F1) doctors are in their first year of working as a doctor and Foundation 2 (F2) doctors are in their 2nd year after qualification. 

For these 2 years newly qualified doctors work in a variety of different specialities and medical settings before they decide what branch of medicine they would like to specialise in. The time they spend with us  is our opportunity to give them an understanding of the work that a GP does. Whether the doctors decide to specialise as GPs or not, it provides excellent experience which will help them be more effective doctors in the future.

GP Registrars:

These doctors have chosen to become GP’s and will have already completed their two foundation years; they then train for a further 3 years to become GPs. Although they are still in training, they have a wealth of experience from previous health care settings, often stimulating us with up to date and new ideas from hospital specialists. As part of their GP training they are attached to GP Trainers. This means that each registrar, whilst working autonomously, will be supervised and monitored by the partners here. It could mean some consultations may need to be videoed, this will only happen with your permission. The videos are used for educational purposes helping doctors reflect on their communication skills and also as an assessment tool to monitor their progress.

Medical Students:

Students mostly sit in with doctors to learn about consulting and communication skills. However, they may also start a consultation to help them learn about gathering information about symptoms before a GP steps in to help give a diagnosis and decide what treatment might be needed. Your permission will always be obtained before a student takes part in any consultation.

We really enjoy training the doctors of the future and hope that you will be happy to be part a of this. If you would like to more involved than this then please read the Patient Participation leaflet below, by clicking on the link. If you have any concerns or questions, we will do our best to fully address them.

General Practice and the Foundation Programme

Patient Participation Leaflet

If you have been contacted by the surgery and asked to attend for a Spirometry Lung Function Test there is some important information that you need to be aware of prior to attending your appointment.

A spirometry lung function test is a measurement of breathing and is used for the diagnosis and monitoring of lung function.  The test will be carried out by one of our Health Care Assistants, and may take up to 30 minutes to perform.  Spirometry tests may also form part of your annual review appointment if you have COPD.

Preparing for your appointment

It is important that you do not:

• eat a large meal within 2 hours of the test;
• smoke for 1 hour before the test;
• drink alcohol within 4 hours of the test starting;

We ask that you do:

• wear loose, comfortable clothing to avoid restriction of breathing;
• avoid strenuous exercise within 30 minutes of the test.

You can take all your normal medications, including inhalers, before this test.  Indeed if you use regular reliever inhalers, we ask that you ensure you use them 30 minutes before the appointment.

To ensure it is safe to perform the test, and so that we can produce accurate results, we will not be able to do the test if any of the following applies to you:

• current chest infection or an infection within the last 4-6 weeks
• coughing up blood
• recent eye, chest or abdomen surgery
• recent collapsed lung (or within 2 weeks of resolving)
• recent heart attack, uncontrolled high blood pressure or blood clot, or unstable angina
• nausea and vomiting
• tuberculosis (TB)
• diagnosis of aneurysm

If any of the above applies to you, please contact the practice to cancel the appointment and we will advise you accordingly.

To protect our patients and staff from COVID-19, you must not attend your appointment if any of the following applies to you:

• You have tested positive for COVID-19.
• You or a member of your household, or someone you have come into contact with, has symptoms of COVID-19 (new, persistent cough; temperature of 37.8 degrees or higher; loss of smell or taste; flu-like symptoms).
• You have been asked to isolate in the 10 days prior to your appointment by the NHS App, public health or an NHS professional.

If you have a long-standing chronic cough, please inform the staff member performing your spirometry test.

Should you be unable to attend your appointment, please contact the practice and we will be happy to re-arrange.

If you have any questions about spirometry, or require any further guidance, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Giving Blood Samples for Disease Surveillance

Disease surveillance involves taking blood samples from volunteer patients to help us to monitor the immunity of the population to infectious diseases; currently the focus is on COVID-19 and the spread of respiratory viruses.

Blood Samples or Serological Surveillance

We are inviting patients who are attending routine blood sample appointments at their GP practices to give an extra sample of blood. 

The health care professional taking the blood sample will ask you if you are willing to have an extra blood sample taken to be stored and used for disease surveillance purposes.

You can find out more about serological surveillance by reviewing the attached patient information sheet.

Patient Information Sheet (Serology)