Harleston Medical Practice Patient Participation Group

GP Appointment System

Have Your Say!

Prior to the 1st February 2014routine GP appointments were bookable up to 4 weeks in advance. Although this allowed patients to plan ahead, we repeatedly received feedback from patients saying that they had to wait too long for a routine appointment, particularly with the GP of their choice. Sometimes up to three weeks. Whilst the on-call doctor would always see those with an urgent need for a same day appointment we felt that this feedback warranted the trial of a new approach to booking appointments. It was hoped that this new approach may also help reduce the significant number of appointments for which patients fail to attend (DNA’s).

The current system allows patients to book routine appointments with the GP either for that day or the next working day. The GP’s continue to offer a follow up appointment at the time of the initial consultation should it be required. Although this system does not allow you to ‘book ahead’ it does reduce the amount of time patients are waiting for an appointment as well as reducing DNA’s. If on contacting the surgery all appointments for that day have been booked and you have an urgent need to be seen the same day you will be offered a same day appointment with the on-call doctor. The phone lines have been busier first thing in the morning and we now have additional staff working at these times to help with this.We have also increased the number of appointments bookable online on account of the number of patients now registered for this service. If you wish to register for online booking please ask at reception.

We continue to run evening clinics a Monday evening from 18.30- 20.45. These remain bookable one week in advance by telephone and online.

We are interested to hear which system you prefer so that your Patient Participation Group and the Practice may decide how to proceed. Please specify your preference below by placing a tick in the relevant boxes to indicate your response:

I have made or tried to make a GP
appointment since February 2014
YES
NO
I prefer the NEW system / I prefer the OLD system

Suggestions for improvements to the way appointments are offered:

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Remember:Appointments can be booked online- please ask reception for details

Ask reception about evening appointments

If you need to cancel an appointment you can phone our cancellation line and leave a message: 01379 855908