Appointments

Routine Appointments

Appointments for consultations with doctors and nurses can be made in advance either by telephone or calling in at the surgery. Whenever possible you will be given an appointment to suit you with a doctor/nurse of your choice, but it must be emphasised that this may not always be possible. You may also book appointments online; however, you will have to register for this and get an access code. Ask at reception for more details.

• We endeavour to offer you an appointment within 48 working hours.
• Each appointment allows for one person and one problem only. Please ask for a separate time for each person attending and each problem to be dealt with.
• All appointments are of 10 minutes’ duration. However, if you think you will need more time with a doctor, please ask for a double appointment when you make your booking with the receptionist.
• Please ensure that children under the age of 14 are accompanied by a responsible adult.
• If you are unable to keep your appointment, please let us know without delay. Non-attendance means someone else missing out on an appointment.

There might be occasions when a medical student is present during your consultation. If you do not wish them to be present, please let the receptionist know.

The practice is trained in Care Navigation. This means if a patient phones to request an appointment with a doctor or another Clinician at the practice the reception staff have been trained to ask some questions in order to point the patient to the most appropriate care. This may be an appointment with a member of our clinical workforce or to another external service we can sign post patients to.

Urgent Appointments

If you think your condition is urgent please give details of your condition to our receptionist. You will be dealt with without delay by our triage nurse or the doctor who is on call.

Sick children will be seen as quickly as possible in surgery. It does not harm a child to be brought to the surgery warmly wrapped up unless they are extremely ill. If in doubt, telephone the surgery for advice.

There are certain conditions that can be dealt with by local pharmacies; patients entitled to free prescriptions will be dealt with in the same way as they would be at their doctors.

If you are pregnant and experience bleeding, contact EPAU on 01709 304398 between 9.00am and 5.00pm for advice.

Weekend & Evening Appointments

We have a service for routine pre-booked appointments for late evening and weekends available at one of the hubs across Rotherham.

It gives patients who may be unable to attend during the week access to a GP appointment.

Please call the surgery to find out more information and request one of these appointments.

Out Of Hours

If you require a doctor when the surgery is closed, you are to ring NHS 111. The number is a free call from both landlines and mobiles. They will discuss with you your condition and decide whether advice, a visit to the Primary Care Centre or a home visit is appropriate. The doctors out-of-hours service is in addition to their day time work, so please use this service with discretion. If you ring the surgery when we are closed a recorded message will ask you to end the call and redial 111.

NHS 111 Service:

NHS 111 is available to make it easier for you to access local NHS healthcare services in England. You can call 111 when you need medical help fast but it’s not a 999 emergency. NHS 111 is a fast and easy way to get the right help, whatever the time.

NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Calls are free from landlines and mobile phones.

Urgent and Emergency Care Centre:

Emergency Care Centre is based at Rotherham Hospital and is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Home Visits

Requests for emergency visits take priority at all times. For a home visit please telephone before 10.30am so that the doctors have enough time to arrange their visits in order of urgency and therefore avoid unnecessary delays.

Home visits are for people whose illness renders them truly housebound. The doctor can see four or five patients in surgery during the time it takes to do one home visit.

Typical examples of home visits are for people who are:

• Terminally ill
• Elderly and infirm
• Where the journey to the surgery would exacerbate their condition, for example a severe disc prolapse.

For most other conditions doctors expect patients to be seen in surgery and the doctors may need surgical equipment for examination, which would not be available at home. When requesting a home visit, it is necessary to leave a contact telephone number.

Please bear in mind that emergency appointments are offered each day.