Our appointments system offers the following depending on which is most appropriate or which you prefer:
- A face to face
- Telephone consultation
- Sign posting to local community services i.e. pharmacy, self-help etc
- It also may not be with a GP; we have a very experienced nursing team who maybe more appropriate to deal with your query as well as local community services.
Pre booked Face to Face or Telephone Appointments
You can book a routine face to face appointment with one our GP’s or a telephone consultation depending on your preference. You can also make a follow-up appointment before you leave the surgery so you can be sure see the clinician of your choice This gives you more choice of the appointment and the doctor or nurse whom you prefer.
Same Day Appointments/Telephone Triage
If you ask for a same day appointment, our highly trained reception team have been asked by the GPs to ask a series of questions over the telephone to ascertain the nature of the call, how soon the patient needs to be contacted & who is the most appropriate person for the patient to be directed towards. Every day, GP practices receive requests for help or advice through patients ringing or walking in.
Every day, GP practices receive requests for help or advice through patients ringing or walking in. For each patient request, the practice needs to decide:
- Why they have sought help from their GP
- What kind of help the patient needs
- How quickly the patient needs help
- Who is the best person to help the patient
- Where the patient should be seen
The answers to these questions help the practice to help patients based on their needs. This process is called triage. Triaging is essential when you may be dealing with hundreds of patients a day, all with different needs, requests, and health backgrounds.
Remote Booking Consultation
Livi is a remote consulting service for our patients above the age of 1. These are very experienced clinicians that offers comprehensive clinical information & advice over the telephone or via video consultation. You can speak to a Livi GP about health concerns or symptom, & they can provide medical advice, prescriptions, specialist referrals & sick notes if necessary.
e-Consults
e-consult allows patients to safely contact their GP surgery without having to come into the practice. eConsult collects all the details your GP surgery needs to decide on the right care for you and you will receive a response by the end of the next working day.
e-consult is available from 8am Monday until 6.30pm on Friday. When e-consult is unavailable you will still be able to access the self help information. if you urgently need medical advice please call the surgery on 01308 861938 – DO NOT SUBMIT AN e-CONSULT. Occasionally due to clinical staff capacity issues we have to switch e-consult off – https://bartonhousemedicalpractice.webgp.com/
Evening & Weekend Appointments
There is now an improved access service for patients of Barton House and surrounding surgeries. These are additional GP, nurse practitioner and nursing appointments in the evenings and weekends. These usually run from the local community hospitals, but you DO need an appointment first. This can be arranged by the surgery or if necessary via 111.
Home Visiting
Please telephone the Practice before 10:00 (when possible) if a home visit is needed. It is helpful if you give the Receptionist details of the problem to allow the doctor to assess the urgency of the visit.
Appointment Information
- An emergency triage appointment is to treat your presenting condition and is for one patient only. Please make a routine appointment to discuss any other problems you may have
- We do not advise telephone consultations for any problem that would require an examination.
- Patients can see the doctor of their choice & for ongoing & long-term health problems, we encourage to see the same doctor for continuity of care.
- If you are unable to keep your appointment please notify the surgery as soon as possible by telephoning reception.
- If you are ringing to speak to the doctor to discuss the result of an investigation or a recent hospital treatment, check with reception first that any important results or letters have been received; Ideally hospitals now know they should inform patients of their results if they have requested the investigation as they have the specialised knowledge to explain the implications in detail.
Please be assured receptionist are bound by the same confidentiality code as the GP’s and our staff adhere to the Practice’s Confidentiality Policy and Data Protection Act 2018. We would appreciate for you to give as much detail as you can to our reception team, but we also understand this is not always possible.
We, like you, would love to return back to the old ‘Normal’ and how we were before COVID 19 and although vaccinations, social distancing and continuing to wear face coverings has helped greatly – we are still in a pandemic and we need to maintain the safety of everyone and reduce where possible unnecessary contact.
Please be assured IF YOU NEED A FACE TO FACE APPOINTMENT YOU WILL BE OFFERED ONE
Can another Healthcare Professional help?
Do you need to see the GP?
Sometimes the GP is not the most appropriate Healthcare Professional to deal with your ailment. Please see the information on see a Doctor or Healthcare Professional, which might help you decide whether a GP appointment is truly necessary or whether it might be better for you to see a Pharmacist, Optician, Dentist or other Healthcare Professional. You can even self-refer for some services without seeing your GP.
For real life-threatening emergencies such as those below – RING 999
- Chest pain (suspected heart attack)
- Suspected stroke
- Suspected meningitis
- Anaphylactic shock (severe allergy)
- Heavy bleeding or deep lacerations
- Fluctuating levels of consciousness or completely unconscious
- Difficulty breathing or stopped breathing with a change in colour
- New seizure, fit or uncontrollable shaking
For immediately serious conditions such as the following, GO TO Emergency Department (A&E) IMMEDIATELY
- A fever and lethargic (drowsy) child
- A feverish and floppy (unresponsive) infant
- Difficulty breathing
- Sudden, severe abdominal pain
- Accidental or intentional overdose of medication
- Trauma (including falls) and possible broken bones or road traffic accident
Please help us
If you are not able to attend your appointment please let us know in time so that the time can be used for someone else. If you are more than 15 minutes late for an appointment you may be asked to re-book.
Your appointment at the Practice
Our appointments
All consultations, except emergencies, are by appointment which can be made by telephoning during surgery opening hours. If you cannot keep an appointment please telephone to cancel so that it can be offered to another patient. Continuity of care is important – please try to see your usual doctor at all times.
If you think you need to be seen earlier than the appointment offered, please tell the receptionist.
The doctors place greater emphasis on giving enough time to each patient and ensuring that patients can make appointments within 24 – 48hr than on time keeping within an individual surgery session so there may be delays beyond your appointment time.
We are working to improve access to appointments for our patients, in particular at evenings and weekends. If you would like to be offered one of these appointments, which may be at a different site, please ask.
Emergencies
A doctor is on call for emergencies during the hours in which the doctors are running their surgeries (i.e. 09:00 to 12:00 and 16:00 to 18:00).
Please note that although the surgery is open outside these times, there is no guarantee that a doctor or a nurse will be available. If you are in any doubt, you should dial the emergency services. When making an emergency call, try to remain calm and give as much information as you are able. If using a call box, please have several coins available.
Telephone advice
The doctors are available for telephone advice. Although this is usually at the end of their surgeries we cannot specify a time at which they will call you but they will endeavour to contact you between 8am & 8pm on the day on which you request a call.
Practice Nurses
In a number of cases it might be worth considering an appointment with a practice nurse rather than a doctor. Practice nurses are qualified to deal with many conditions and you may be seen more quickly.
Additional information
If you have a suspected infectious disease
Please inform reception if you suspect an infectious disease, as this will enable us to deal with it appropriately during your visit to protect you, other patients and staff.
Giving Consent for Treatment
You have the right to accept or refuse treatment that is offered to you, and not to be given any physical examination or treatment unless you have given valid consent. If you do not have the capacity to do so, consent must be obtained from a person legally able to act on your behalf, or the treatment must be in your best interests.
Your valid consent (agreement to the course of action) is needed for the treatment that’s offered to you before any physical examinations or treatment can be given. If you haven’t given your consent, you can accept or refuse treatment that’s offered to you.
It’s important to be involved in decisions about your treatment and to be given information to help you choose the right treatment. When making treatment choices, you’ll often discuss the options with your doctor or another healthcare professional.