To cancel your appointment please do so via your SystmOnline account or email siamsurgery.patientcontact@nhs.net. If you are unable to do either of these, please call the reception team on 01787 322420.
Appointments System
All surgeries are by appointment only. Appointments can be made by telephone on Monday to Friday 08:00 – 18:30.
This is a group practice and you are welcome to see any doctor you wish, but please note that you may be offered an alternative doctor if your first preference is not available.
Emergencies
If you need an urgent appointment a doctor will see you as soon as possible, this will usually be the same day, except at weekends when other arrangements apply.
Please be aware that we, along with most GP surgeries across the UK, are experiencing an unprecedented demand on our services which often exceeds our capacity for safe working and unfortunately our resources are not limitless. At times we might be unable to offer you the specific appointment that you have requested however you will always be provided with appropriate alternative options.
Home Visits
Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and facilities available, we do appreciate this is not always possible. In this respect, if you do need a home visit, you can help us by calling reception as soon after 8:00am as possible.
You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed. Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls
You can also be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.
Online booking
During a recent survey, a few patients mentioned that they would like us to open up our appointment system for booking online. We do currently have the facility for appointments to be booked online, but this is on an invite only basis. It works well particularly for vaccination clinics, some long term health conditions, follow up appointments, medication reviews, blood tests, cervical screening. We are continually working on expanding this across as many appointment types as possible to improve ease of access, however it is important to note that this is not simple and there are some limitations to what we can do.
The reason we can’t have all of our appointments available online is because there are several things that need to be considered when booking an appointment, including:
- WHO YOU SEE- a GP won’t be able to change your dressing, take your smear or give you up to date travel vaccination advice. We have a nursing team who are all trained to do different things and whilst everyone can do something, no one can do everything. Some appointments such as coil insertions require a specific GP and a nurse to work together at the same time.
- DURATION OF APPOINTMENT– some appointments only require 10 minutes, some require 30 minutes. It depends on what the appointment is for and who it is with.
- ELIGIBILITY – some services have specific criteria such as a set period of time between smears and for the pneumococcal vaccination you need to be above a certain age.
- CARE NAVIGATION – is the GP or nurse the best person to deal with your issue? Pharmacists can deal with some minor illnesses and the physiotherapist is sometimes the best person to see about your back pain. Our receptionists are able to signpost patients to other healthcare services when appropriate, which means that the GPs and nurses are available for the patients who cannot be seen by these other services.
- URGENCY- many people would choose to have an appointment on the same day regardless of whether it is for something that is medically urgent or not, it is natural to want the quickest answers and resolution possible and we do understand this as people (and patients) ourselves. However it is important that we have systems in place to help those who need an urgent appointment in being able to access one.
There can be no direct comparison made to how things have been done previously in General Practice because amongst many other things, the size and needs of the population has changed greatly over the last few years.
Please do bear in mind that the GP may ask you to leave and rebook your appointment if you have purposefully given a false reason for the appointment when booking via reception. You are able to book an appointment without giving a brief reason to the receptionist (please just let them know that you would prefer not to say) but please aware that as a result of this you might not be booked with the appropriate clinician or allocated the necessary duration or timeframe which could result in a wasted appointment.
Cancellations & Reminders
Cancel an Appointment
Every month a number of patients DNA (did not attend) for their appointments. This causes unnecessary pressure on our appointments system, and can mean that patients may have to wait longer to see their preferred GP. With an ever-increasing demand for appointments, it is vital that they are not wasted in this manner.
Please help us, and other patients, by always cancelling an appointment you no longer require - this ensures we can offer it to another patient.
Please remember that appointments can be cancelled by telephoning reception between 08:00 - 18:30 Monday to Friday or you can email siamsurgery.patientcontact@nhs.net at any time to suit you.
DNA General Policy
If a patient consistently fails to attend a pre-booked appointment, an informal warning letter will be sent to the patient, requesting that in future, should they no longer require an appointment they have made, to please cancel it in good time.
If the patient subsequently fails to attend a further appointment, their access to online and telephone booking, and a choice of available appointments may be restricted. The matter may be discussed at a Partners Meeting and a majority agreement will be reached as to whether the patient will be removed from the Practice List.
Following the agreement the Practice Manager will write to the patient and explain the reasons for removal.
Text Reminder Service
We have a texting service which allows you to receive confirmation and reminders about your appointments.
You can opt out of this by letting the receptionist know you do not want to recieve text messages.
Please remember to update your contact details with us when you change address, telephone numbers and email address.
Late For Your Appointment
Please attend your appointment on time, if you are late the clinician will always will do their best to fit you in however it might not be possible for you to be seen and you could be asked to rebook your appointment for another day.
Interpreter
If you require an interpreter to attend with you when you see your Doctor please notify the receptionist and she will arrange this for you.
