Appointments

We have a number ways of helping you to get an appointment with a health professional of your choice. You are welcome to book appointments at either our branch or our main surgery.

PREBOOKABLE APPOINTMENTS

• Pre book an appointment one week in advance for non urgent problems/reviews. These are available Mon-Fri at specific times, early morning and late afternoon;  Sat mornings 8.30-10.30; Thurs evenings until 7.30pm;  Wed mornings from 7am-8am.
• Telephone appointments are available for most doctors on most days.

SAME DAY APPOINTMENTS

• Ring at 7.45am on Mon and 8.00am Tues – Fri for same day appointments.

   

Any calls for appointments which are surplus to availability that day are passed to the On-Call doctor to deal with appropriately.

OTHER INFORMATION

• We will try and book the appointment with the health professional of your choice although this may not always be possible.
• Our Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) can diagnose, prescribe and can provide you with help for chronic (things you have had a long time) or acute illness (new problems that have just occurred). Carmel Ashby and Julia Taylor are with us permanently and we sometimes employ locum ANPs to cover holidays or sick leave.
• Charnwood Surgery is a training practice which means we are lucky to have a number of GP registrars. GP registrars are experienced, fully qualified doctors who are having further training to become a general practitioner (GP). See the link on the right hand side of the page for further information.
• If for any reason you are unable to keep your appointment please ring us and let us know so that it can be offered to another patient.

Home Visits

HOME VISITS ARE FOR THE HOUSE-BOUND AND THOSE TOO ILL TO COME TO SURGERY

If you are unable to come to surgery, please telephone BEFORE 10.30 am stating your problem. The doctor will telephone you to discuss your visit request.

Most poorly children can safely be brought to the surgery and can be better assessed in our fully equipped premises.

Test Results

Please ring after 2.00 pm to enquire about your test results as our reception staff will have more time to deal with your request between these times.

Note that the practice has a strict policy regarding confidentiality and data protection and we will only release test results to the person to whom they relate unless that person has given prior permission for the release of this data or they are not capable of understanding the results.

When you take your test you will be told how long it will be before the results are returned to the practice.

It is your responsibility to check your results and to make an appointment to discuss them with your doctor if your are advised to do so.

Our Patient Patients

Thank you to the vast majority of our patients who are polite and understanding. 

We have over 13,000 patients registered at our practice.  We realise that it can be difficult to get through on the telephone at certain times, and that on occasion surgeries run late. 

Each appointment is usually allocated a 10 minute time slot and some conditions/illnesses take longer to deal with and some take less.  Usually the times balance out but we are unable to plan for every eventuality and at times things will run late.  During each appointment the clinician has to greet the patient, take a history, carry out any necessary examination, diagnose, give advice/prescribe any necessary treatment and write up the notes on the computer system.  When a patient needs to admitted to hospital as emergency this can take some time to arrange.

Helping Us To Help You

Below are some tips to help you get the most out of the surgery/your appointment:

• Many conditions will get better in a few days.  Simple measures such as Paracetamol can help relieve your symptoms.  Advice can be sought from a pharmacist or NHS Direct. Some health advice is available by clicking the link on the right side of this screen for minor illness.
• When you telephone the surgery please be prepared for the receptionist to ask you a few questions, such as your date of birth, address etc.  This ensures that the right patient record is selected so that the clinician has the correct information for the consultation.
• Do you need to be seen, or will a telephone conversation with a doctor/nurse be sufficient.
• If you have an appointment to be seen, have a think about the questions the clinician is likely to ask you.  Common questions include; how long have you had the problem, does anything make it worse/better, the site and severity of any pain/discomfort, any recent changes in lifestyle, medication (over the counter, prescribed or illicit drugs), have you tried any treatments/remedies yourself.
• Don't 'save up' your problems for one appointment.  This doesn't help the doctor/nurse as it can mean the surgery runs late and insufficient time is given to each problem.  If you have several problems or something you feel will take a long time to talk about please tell the receptionist when booking.  They may be able to offer you a longer appointment with another clinician, a double appointment or a further appointment at another time.
• Please don't expect clinicians to complete forms (eg, benefit claims, holiday cancellation forms etc) during an appointment.  These should be left at reception for collection another day.  Please note there is often a fee for this.
• Please do not expect a prescription every time you visit the surgery. Good advice is often the best treatment.
• If you cannot keep an appointment, please let us know as soon as possible as this will enable us to offer it to another patient.

Thank you

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