Appointments
We offer appointments, to our registered patients, with a range of health professionals including GPs, nurses, clinical pharmacists or physiotherapists, depending on your situation. Appointments may be face-to-face, over the phone or online.
How to book, change or cancel an appointment
The New online consultation service offers a secure, simple, and flexible way for our patients and carers to contact us using digital platforms, the PATCHS . It will not replace face-to-face appointments, it is simply a signposting tool, to ensure our phone lines are kept as accessible as possible for our most vulnerable and poorly patients. Every request to see or speak to a GP, thus, will need to be requested via our digital platform PATCHES.
The Practice will aim to respond to your request within two working days as a maximum. If you submit a request over the weekends/ bank holidays, please note it will not be processed until the surgery re-opens on Monday with a response time within two working days from then at the latest (Wednesday 6 pm).
Our goal is to increase efficiency, convenience and continuity when interacting with our services and consulting with our GPs.
Emergencies Outside of Surgery Hours: Please call 111 if you require urgent medical attention. IF YOU HAVE LIFE-THREATENING MEDICAL EMERGENCY CALL 999
There are several ways to access Patchs:
- use NHS Login (how to do this is detailed below)
- create an individual Patchs account (see here)
- create a Patchs account as a carer for someone else (see here)
- use a ‘Guest Account’ (see here)
Access Patchs using NHS Login as a new user and as an existing user.
To access Patchs using NHS Login, follow these steps:
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From Your Practice’s Website:
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Via the NHS App:
If you’re not registered with a GP surgery
You can call any GP surgery to get emergency treatment for up to 14 days if you’re not registered with a GP surgery or are away from home.
If your treatment will last longer than 14 days, you’ll have to register as a temporary or permanent resident. Read more about how to register with a GP surgery.
If you’re struggling to make an appointment
If you’re struggling to make an appointment, contact us by emailing us at wiccg.thevillamedicalcentre@nhs.net . The surgery management team will get back to you as soon as possible. Please click here for our complaint procedure. If you’re not comfortable raising a complaint directly or do not feel you’ve had a satisfactory response, you can complain to the NHS.
Other services
Before you make an appointment with your GP surgery, think about what other services might be able to help.
- Go to a pharmacy for advice and treatment for common illnesses, aches and pains that do not need a prescription. Read about how pharmacies can help.
- Call NHS 111 if you have an urgent medical problem, but you’re not sure what to do.
- Visit 111 online for urgent medical advice for people aged 5 and over only.
- Visit a sexual health clinic for testing for sexually transmitted infections and contraception advice.
You do not have to make an appointment or register for these services.
Our Appointment System
- We will continue to offer book-on-the-day appointments for those patients who have a clinically urgent problem.
- We will offer some appointments within one-two working day (Mon-Fri), however, these are not unlimited and will be on a first come first served basis.
- If you contact us and we do not have any appointments left for the day, but you think you need to be seen urgently, then the receptionist will take your contact number and the Duty Doctor will call you back. We will no longer have a GP Extra clinic where you can sit and wait.
- If you wish to see a named GP, at a certain time of the day, then you can pre-book an appointment, however, we must advise you that there may be a wait for this.
- There may be fewer appointments available when a GP is on holiday, or indeed are ill themselves. In this instance, we will offer more book-on-the-day appointments so that the patients who have a clinically urgent problem can be seen.
You can help us make this new appointment system work by:
- Not insisting on a same-day appointment if your problem is not clinically urgent.
- Cancelling your appointment if it is no longer needed or wanted. Since 1 April 2014, over 1000 appointments have been missed with either a GP or Nurse. This is one of the main reasons why we have a shortage of appointments.
- It is Practice Policy that children are brought to the surgery by an adult, enabling them to be seen promptly
- In some cases, it might be worth considering an appointment with a practice nurse rather than a doctor. Practice nurses are qualified to deal with many conditions and you may be seen more quickly.
Chaperones
If you feel you would like a chaperone present during your consultation please inform Reception when you arrive for your appointment or your doctor/nurse during your consultation who will be happy to arrange this for you. Click here to view our Chaperone Policy.
Cancellations
If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to offer that appointment to someone else.