Appointments

Routine Appointments

We offer both face to face and telephone routine appointments and pre-bookable appointments can usually be booked up to six weeks in advance.  Our reception team will be happy to offer you the next available appointment with any clinician or with your preferred clinician. 

When contacting us, you are likely to be asked to provide a short description of your symptoms by the reception team. This information will be held in the strictest of confidence and will help them to direct you the most appropriate service and to the most suited member of the healthcare team. 

Urgent Appointments

If your problem is urgent and you feel that you need advice on the same day, please advise the receptionist.  We have an Urgent Care Team that deals with all urgent problems.  You may be seen by a Nurse Practitioner, Physicians Associate or a GP.  We are not able to advise you in advance who your appointment will be with and the available appointment may be at any of the 3 branches.  It would be helpful if you can tell the receptionist a brief description of why you need an urgent appointment so that we can ensure that you are seen by the most appropriate clinician.  Our Nurse Practitioners are qualified in treating a wide range of problems.  They are able to prescribe and should they feel that you need to have a further urgent assessment with a GP are able to arrange this.

Appointments can be made by:

• telephoning the surgery - 01543 682654
• booking via the nhs app
• calling in personally to the reception desk

Telephone Consultations

If you are unable to attend the surgery or the matter can be dealt with over the telephone, we also offer telephone consultations.

We may ask that you send us a photo if your consultation is about skin, please see the link below if we do ask 

Taking photos of your skin and sending them securely to your GP

We allow 10 minutes per consultation for one person only. However, if you feel you need longer please tell the receptionist when booking.

We ask that you try to observe the “One appointment, one problem” ethos. We aim to deal with each medical problem to the highest standard and this can be difficult if we are asked to deal with a number of problems in one appointment slot.

Please also note that your appointment is for you only. Please do not ask the doctor to deal with the problems of a child or other relative in the same appointment slot. Please make a separate appointment for your child/relative if they need to be seen as well.

We do consider that GP appointments are a limited resource and we would kindly ask that our service be used with care and consideration.  Please do not be offended if the doctor asks you to rebook for your other problems. We are working in your best interests in order to keep you safe.

You are entitled to see a doctor of your choice.  We encourage you to see the same doctor for an ongoing problem.  However, we may not always be able to offer you a suitable day and time because not all the GPs work full time and some divide their time between different sites.  If you are unable to see a doctor of your choice at your usual surgery, we may be able to offer you an appointment at one of our other surgery’s or offer you an appointment with an alternative GP or Nurse Practitioner.

Please ensure you arrive in good time for your appointment.  If you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible as someone else may be able to make use of that appointment.   If you repeatedly waste appointments the practice may, after a warning, remove you from our patient list.

We realise that it can be frustrating for patients to have to wait beyond their appointment time and we always try our best to run on time. However, as it is often not possible to predict how much time an individual patient may need as sometimes emergencies arise, so there will be times that our surgeries run behind.  We apologise when that happens and aim to inform you if the waiting time is likely to be more than 30 minutes.

Thursday Evening Extended Access - 18:00 - 20:30

The practice operates an evening surgery every Thursday for pre-booked appointments at Greenwood Health Centre, Burntwood

Saturday Out of Hours Hub - 09:00 – 17:00

We are also working in conjunction with other practices in Burntwood and Lichfield to offer weekend appointments at Samuel Johnson Hospital

Please note, the out of hours service enables authorised Doctors and Clinicians to view your full GP medical record from your own GP practice.  This includes medications, referrals and other key clinical information to make a better and more informed decision about your treatment.  You can find more information on Shared Care Records and our Partner Organisations in our Privacy Policy

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they feel one is required. This may be a family member, friend or a formal chaperone.  Your healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations in accordance with our chaperone policy.  If you wish to have a chaperone present during your consultation, please mention this to the receptionist when booking your appointment or to the doctor at your consultation.

If you are non-English speaking and require an interpreter please tick the appropriate box when completing your registration form. 

An interpreter can be organised to either accompany a patient or translate via telephone.  You must mention this when booking your appointment so that the necessary arrangements can be made prior to your visit. 

If possible please try to telephone reception between 08:00 - 10:00 if you require a home visit.

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.

You can 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.

We have a texting service which allows you to receive confirmation and reminders about your appointments.

To have this service you will need to register by completing a consent form.

Please remember to update your contact details with us when you change address, telephone numbers and email address.

Our practice staff are here to help you and make sure you get the right treatment as quickly as possible. They aim to be polite, helpful and sensitive to patients’ needs and concerns. In return we ask that all patients treat staff with respect. GP Practices have a zero-tolerance policy to aggressive, violent or abusive behaviour against staff which may result in patients being removed from a practice list and in some cases practices may choose to inform the police.

"If I die, it will be your fault" is just one of the many abusive comments heard by GP reception staff throughout the UK.  The survey of 571 Practice Managers, revealed more than 75% of staff suffer daily abuse from patients. 

With the majority (78%) facing threatening behaviour, racist or sexist abuse from patients, and 83% reporting having called the police for help, the institute of General Practice Managers (IGPM) launch their campaign to end all abuse towards general practice staff.

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