Appointments

In order to improve our on-the-day access to clinicians, you can now book appointments from 8:00am by telephone only.  The surgery doors will not be opened until 8:25am every morning.  We also run several other types of clinics - see below for more details.  Of course, usual daily appointments, prebookable appointments and if you have registered for the service, online prebookable appointments are still available.

Emergency Clinic

 The appointments are for:

-Asthma attacks               -Breathing difficulties        - Abdominal pains

- Chest pain within 48 hours but not present all the time               - Confusion

- Prolonged or multiple fitting         - Sudden loss of vision              - Severe headache

- Headache associated with neck stiffness/rash/photophobia

- Heavy vaginal bleeding     - uncontrollable nose bleed  

- Suicidal thoughts or intent        - Recurrent infections

- Any condition that causes the receptionist or caller anxiety or distress

The times must be adhered to and if patients are late they may not be seen due to the slots only being 7 minutes long.

Telephone Triage

Every morning there will be different types of telephone triage slots.

• Home visit triage- clinician will triage to see if the patient needs a home visit or advice/prescription over the phone
• Telephone triage- clinical asssessment will be made during the phone call and should the clinician feel that a face to face appointment is required, an appointment will be made for that afternoon with the clinician. 

Saturday Appointments

Not available at the current time - hoping to re-instate once further clinicians are recruited.

Cancellations/Did Not Attend

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else.

For any patient who fails to attend three booked appointments in a twelve month period, consideration will be given to removing them from our list of registered patients.  Please note this policy includes secondary care appointments, e.g. hospital appointments.

To Sign up for Patient Online Access.

Please note:  you will need an active email address to use this service.  Please inform the surgery of your email address before trying to register for this service.

You can now use the Patient Access system to book appointments, request repeat medications and look at your medical record and test results online.  You will need to register at https://patient.emisaccess.co.uk/Account/Login first.  You will also need to complete a Request for Online Access form to my medical record and bring to the surgery with the relevant ID required (two documents one of which must be photo ID and the other should be passport, driving licence or recent bank statement, household bill etc).   Read more information about this by viewing the Patient Information Leaflet:  Northdown Online access PIL.pdf

Online Access form:   Online access application form

Choose and Book Referral System

All patients requiring a referral to a secondary care service available on the Choose & Book system can discuss their options with a GP.

The referral will then be processed by the GP’s secretary, who will send the patient printed confirmation which includes the UBRN (unique booking reference number) and password, together with details of how to contact the appointment line.

A selection of Choose & Book leaflets, posters and guides are available at the surgery.

Information can also be sought online.

Choose and Book is a new service that allows you to choose your hospital or clinic and book an appointment with a specialist. Since summer 2004, Choose and Book has been introduced across England. From 1 January 2006, when you and your GP agree that you need to see a specialist, you will be able to choose from at least four hospitals or clinics. You will also be able to choose the date and time of your appointment.

The Benefits of Choose and Book

• You can choose from at least four hospitals.
• You can also choose the date and time for your appointment.
• You experience greater convenience and certainty. With the old system, your hospital or clinic chose the date and time of your appointment. This may not have been convenient for you. With Choose and Book, the choice is yours.
• There is less chance that information will get lost in the post because more correspondence takes place through computers.

Home Visits

Please telephone 01843 231661 before 10:30 for non-urgent home visits.

We ask most patients to come to the surgery because facilities are better and doctor’s time spent travelling means less time with other patients. However, if you or someone you care for is too ill to leave home, you will be visited. The receptionist will need as much information as possible for the duty doctor.

Whilst the doctors and community nurses will willingly visit patients who are housebound, they would appreciate other patients making every effort to come to the surgery. For patients that are mobile we expect them to make their own transport arrangements. Please remember that when visiting people at home, the doctors do not have the facilities and equipment which the surgery provides. Also, it takes much longer to see a patient at home – the doctors can see several people at the surgery in the time it takes to drive to a patient’s home.

To help doctors to manage their time efficiently, we ask patients to:

• Please telephone your request for a home visit before 10.30
• In order to help the doctor to assess the urgency of your request, please give the receptionist as much information as you can about your problem
• Only request a home visit if the patient is too ill to get out of bed

The GP will decide whether a home visit is required.  They may, in certain circumstances, ask you to come to the surgery.

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.

Sickness Certificates

You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. Your employer may however require you to complete a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website.

Evidence that you are sick

If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to give them some form of medical evidence to support payment of SSP (statutory sick pay).

It is up to your employer to decide whether you are incapable of work. A medical certificate, now called a 'Statement of Fitness for Work’ (see below) from your doctor is strong evidence that you are sick and would normally be accepted, unless there is evidence to prove otherwise.

You could also provide evidence from someone who is not a medical practitioner, e.g. a dentist. Your employer will decide whether or not this evidence is acceptable. If your employer has any doubts, they may still ask for a medical certificate from your GP.

Statement of Fitness for Work - ’Fit Note'

The 'fit note' was introduced on 6 April 2010. With your employer's support, the note will help you return to work sooner by providing more information about the effects of your illness or injury.

For more information see the DirectGov website (where this information was sourced).

You should allow at least 3 complete working days if you wish to obtain a signed note from your GP.