Information for patients about contacting the practice

Arrangements for Patients to speak to Nurses and GPs on the telephone

Details of reception opening times are published in the Practice leaflet and on the Practice website. The Practice reception can be contacted by telephone between 08:00 and 17:30.

Life threatening emergency

In the event of a life threatening medical emergency patients should call the emergency services by dialling 999. Examples of medical emergencies include

• Difficulty breathing

• Collapse

• Chest pain

• Road Traffic or other accident the previous 48 hours

• Epileptic Fit or Febrile Convulsion

Please remember that General Practices are not Minor Injury Units/ A&E Departments or Walk-in-Centres.

Urgent Medical Care

If urgent medical care is required patients can indicate “emergency” when they call to be redirected to the practice emergency phone or the emergency on call services. Please do not use this option to circumvent the routine appointments system.

Routine Appointments

Appointments (either face to face or on the telephone) can be booked several weeks in advance by calling the practice on 01793 709 500 between 08:00-17:30 Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays). Please choose the Book an appointment option to be redirected to the appointments system. The reception staff will offer you the next available routine appointment however if you feel that you need to be seen earlier then please leave details with the reception team and they will ask the duty doctor to triage the request.

For all queries and requests for advice from patients, the following information will be asked for:-

• Name of caller and a contact number.
• Name of patient and identifying details e.g. date of birth, or address.
• Nature of query.

As our clinical team members are likely to be seeing patients when you call, please do not expect to be put straight through to the nurse or doctor.   If the clinician is not available when you call initially you will be called back as soon as possible to inform you when the clinician may be free to make contact.

Please note, Taw Hill Medical Practice does not offer consultations by email nor do we provide telephone consultations for routine matters outside the available routine appointment times.

Please note, whilst we respect the patient's right not to divulge why they wish to see the doctor or nurse when they call, this can severely hamper our ability to provide a clinically appropriate response. We have several specialist clinics and services but if we have no idea why a patient is requesting an appointment we cannot guarantee to make arrangements to have them seen by the most appropriate team or service. Please bear in mind that a request for a routine appointment for something "personal" may have to be rebooked into a more appropriate appointment after the first meeting.

visits to this page since 1/1/2006