Appointments

How To Make An Appointment

You can make an appointment in the following ways:

Checking In For Appointments

On arrival at the surgery, please either check in at reception or use the automated self-check-in system located in the waiting room. This tells the doctor or nurse that you are here.

Urgent Appointments

If you feel you have a problem that can not wait for a routine appointment with your doctor, it is possible to see the duty doctor of the day (Monday – Friday).

Unfortunately there will be no choice of which doctor you see. You may be asked a few details about the nature of the problem; this will be treated in confidence but is important in trying to utilise the duty doctor’s time most efficiently.

The emergency doctor may also be called out of surgery to attend home visits and as a result you may experience delays to your appointment. We thank you for your patience.

Telephone Consultations

Sometimes you may simply want advice from the doctor.

We offer limited daily telephone consultations with the doctors. The doctors will endeavour to contact you as close to the allocated time.

Please give the receptionist you preferred telephone contact number at time of booking. Some medical conditions like rashes are difficult to diagnose unless seen face to face, so telephone advice may not be appropriate for all medical conditions.

Extended Hours

We offer pre-bookable appointments on Monday evenings between 18:30 – 20:00 and Saturday morning between 08:00 – 11:00, both clinics are by appointment only.

These are pre-booked only and we cannot provide for walk in or emergency service during these sessions.

Please be aware that nurse and phlebotomy support services are not available during these times.

Birchwood Medical Practice now hosts the hub extended access surgery between 16:00 and 20:00, Monday to Friday, and 08:00 till 11:30 on Saturdays.

Missed Appointments

Due to the number of patients who fail to attend their appointments, other patients have not been able to see their doctor of choice when they wanted to. In an attempt to try and resolve this, the practice has developed the following policy.

If you fail to attend an appointment without informing us, we may write to you asking if there was a specific reason why you did not attend or let us know that you couldn’t come.

If you repeatedly fail to attend for appointments, you may be removed from the practice list and asked to find an alternative general practitioner.

Cancelling Appointments

If you are unable to keep an appointment please let us know as soon as possible – this may enable someone else to be seen.