PLEASE NOTE, IF YOU ARE MORE THAN 10 MINUTES LATE TO YOUR APPONTMENT, YOU WILL NOT BE SEEN AND YOUR APPOINTMENT WILL NEED TO BE REARRANGED.

THANK YOU. 

Appointments and Accessing Our Services

The surgery offers both face-to-face and telephone appointments with our GPs and nursing team. Appointments can be booked in advance or on the day, where clinically appropriate.

Appointments can be booked for your convenience online, through the NHS App, Patient Access or myGP, or by telephoning the surgery. We also offer early morning appointments with our clinical team.

Our reception team are trained to signpost and guide patients to the most appropriate service for their needs. Following triage, you may be directed to the most suitable healthcare professional or service. This may be at the surgery or through an extended clinical site, pharmacy or another local NHS service. The most appropriate service for your needs may therefore not always be based at the practice.

If you have a medical problem that you feel cannot wait for a routine appointment, please make this clear to the reception team when you contact us. This will allow your request to be appropriately assessed and triaged.

E-Consult

Have you tried E-Consult?

E-Consult can be accessed through our practice website and provides a convenient way to contact the practice without needing to telephone.

You can use E-Consult to:

• Request medical advice

• Provide information about a health concern

• Request a sick note or fit note

• Request certain medical reports or information

• Submit appropriate clinical or administrative requests

Your request will be reviewed and, where necessary, triaged to the most appropriate clinician or service. This may be within the practice or through another suitable healthcare service.

Please Arrive on Time

Please remember that the practice operates a 10-minute late arrival policy.

If you arrive more than 10 minutes late for your appointment, you may have missed your allocated appointment time and will be asked to rebook. This policy helps us to minimise delays to GP and nursing sessions and ensures fairness to patients who have arrived on time.

We appreciate the effort our patients make to attend their appointments on time and will always aim to run as close to booked appointment times as possible.

Respect for Our Practice Team

The practice operates a zero-tolerance approach to abuse, intimidation, threatening or unacceptable behaviour towards any member of our team.

Our staff are here to help and deserve to be treated with courtesy, dignity and respect at all times. We understand that patients may sometimes be frustrated or worried about their health, but abusive, threatening or intimidating behaviour towards our staff will not be tolerated.

Where unacceptable behaviour occurs, the practice may take appropriate action in line with our zero-tolerance policy.

The Practice offers a full range of nursing services.

It is our policy to only visit patients in our community who are housebound due to certain medical problems or any patients who are terminally ill.

We would highly appreciate if any patients require a home visit, to contact the surgery before 11:00am. This is because the doctors attend the home visits between the end of morning surgery and before the beginning of afternoon surgery. As a result, if patients contact the surgery once the doctors have already left for home visits, the doctors may only be able to attend to late home visits the following day; unless it is an emergency.

If your child has become unwell in the last few days and you would like urgent advice, then please contact the surgery and we will arrange for a doctor to speak to you and if necessary to see your child today.  This will save you an unnecessary trip to A&E or a Walk in Centre.  Can we also make you aware of the Little Orange Book, which provides expert help for parents and carers on how to manage common problems in babies and small children. 

Ask at reception or your GP for a copy or view it online, Little Orange Book

Alternatively, you can also search ‘NHS child health’ and download the free app.

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

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

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Please cancel your appointment if you no longer need it — this helps us avoid wasted NHS appointments and allows us to offer the slot to another patient who needs care.

Patients who repeatedly miss appointments will be given a warning. If this occurs on three occasions within a year the patient will be removed from the practice list, in accordance with our practice policy 

You can also complete our appointment cancellation notification request form. This can only be used if your appointment has been arranged for more than 24 hours in advance. (excluding weekends and public holidays). You can also text to cancel your appointment or cancel via the NHS APP

Blaydon Primary Care Centre

This service offers pre-bookable appointments with local GPs and nurses for patients who require urgent attention.

Monday – Friday: 08:00 – 20:00

Saturday – Sunday: 09:00 – 14:00

Please contact the surgery in order to book an appointment.

If we are closed, whether that be at the weekend or on public holidays and you have an urgent medical concern, you can call NHS 111, where health advisers will ask you a series of questions about your condition and where appropriate book an appointment with a GP; this could be a telephone assessment, a face-to-face appointment at a treatment centre or a home visit. Alternatively, they may book an appointment here, at the surgery if your condition is less serious.