How to book an appointment 

TYPES OF APPOINTMENTS

Medwyn Surgery operates an open practice policy which means you can see any doctor of your choice. 

URGENT APPOINTMENTS - these are available everyday for patients who need to see a clinician for medical attention the same day. Patients requesting an urgent appointment may initially be offered a telephone triage appointment. This allows the doctor or nurse to establish whether your problem can be promptly treated without a need to visit the surgery. If it is necessary to be further assessed at the surgery you will be offered a same day appointment.

ROUTINE APPOINTMENTS - these are standard 10 minute appointments in the doctor' s morning or afternoon surgery. These appointments are pre-bookable. If you feel you have many things to discuss, please request a double appointment.

COMMUTER APPOINTMENTS - we offer pre-bookable commuter slots on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings between 6.30 and 8.30pm

CLINIC APPOINTMENTS - we have a number of dedicated clinics run by our nurse practitioner and practice nurses.

Date updated: 16/09/2011

Home Visits

If you require a home visit because you are too ill to attend the surgery, please make the request before 10.30am by telephoning 01306 882422. Please be prepared to give the receptionist some indication of the nature of the problem, as this helps the doctors plan their rounds more efficiently. It may not always be possible for your own doctor to visit.

Remember that the surgery is specifically designed for the examination, investigation and treatment of patients and the doctors are able to see several patients in the time it takes to perform one home visit.

Date updated: 16/09/2011

The timetable below indicates when each of the doctors are normally available to see patients at Medwyn Surgery. Consultations can usually be booked from 8.30am until 11.40am and from 4.00pm until 6.00pm. Extended hours on a Tuesday and Wednesday evening offer availability until 8.30pm. Our administration staff can be contacted on 01306 882422 if you would like to know when your doctor will be available for an evening appointment.

Date updated: 16/09/2011

Patient Partner

We know that one of the most important issues to many of our patients is improving the telephone access to the surgery and in particular you want to be able to

• Phone to book an appointment at a time convenient to you
• Avoid the morning rush and get through to a receptionist without too long a wait
• Be offered options for different appointment times
• Be able to cancel and check your appointments flexibly too

Bearing all this in mind we have installed an automated telephone appointment booking system which is available to our patients 24 hours a day every day of the year, even when the surgery is closed.

The system is called Patient Partner and allows you to book check or cancel your appointment at any time. The system is very easy to use and just requires you to use your telephone key pad to enter your telephone number and date of birth to identify yourself, and then it will offer you a wide range of booking options. All the doctor appointments available to our receptionists will also be available to book via Patient Partner.

We hope that this will mean that there will no longer be any need for so many patients to call as soon as the practice opens in the morning, and that, with most of our appointments booked automatically, our receptionists will be more able to respond quickly to the balance of more complex calls e.g. regarding prescriptions and test results.

We recognise that many people do not like ‘speaking’ with a machine and prefer to speak to a person, and that will still be an option. However we also hope that patients will come to realise just how easy and convenient the system is to use and will enjoy the ease of booking with Patient Partner.

If you plan to try the system you need to double check that the Practice has your correct contact telephone number.

After that you can just phone the practice on our usual telephone numbers and listen and follow the prompts to book an appointment with a GP or even some type of nursing appointments.

The prompts are all self explanatory however if you would like to see how all the various prompts work please click hereto view or download a copy of our short guide to Patient Partner.

Date updated: 16/09/2011

Missed Appointments

If you are unable to keep an appointment for any reason, please inform the surgery giving as much notice as possible so that the appointment can be reallocated. Thank you.

In 2009, a total of 1278 appointments were wasted due to patients failing to show up and failing to advise the surgery in advance. This is a massive waste of resources both in terms of time and money and directly impinges on the service we are able to offer our patients. Please help us to address this issue by cancelling any appointment that you are unable to attend.  Cancellations can be advised by phone, on-line or in person.

We appreciate there may be occasional instances where an appointment is missed in error. However if you are found to be repeatedly wasting appointments without good reason or prior notification to the surgery, you will receive a series of written and verbal warnings asking that you improve your attendance. Failure to do so could result in your removal from the Medwyn Surgery Listings. These measures have been endorsed by the Local Medical Committee.