Consultations are by appointments and can be booked in person or over the telephone during opening hours. Telephone lines are open between 08:30 - 18:00 Monday to Friday.

If you need to have an appointment with your GP following a hospital appointment please be aware that it is taking at least 3 weeks for letters to arrive at the surgery so it is always worth checking to see if your GP has received a letter before you book an appointment.

Please be aware that if you are booking an appointment online this is a 10 minute appointment only, the clinician can only deal with one problem in a 10 minute appointment if you have more than one thing you want the to discuss with the clinician then please ring the surgery to book a double appointment.

Most Minor Injuries and Illnesses can be managed on the day by clinical practitioners. Clinical Practitioners are qualified to deal with many conditions and you may be seen more quickly. Clinical Practitioners are highly skilled professionals who can assess your problem, can prescribe, make referrals to other services and request investigations to be carried out, such as xrays.

HOUSEBOUND PATIENTS

Our aim is to ensure all our patients receive appropriate care with our limited resources from the right person with the right skills at the right time.

We have defined a housebound person as an individual who is unable to leave their home environment due to a physical or psychological illness without significant assistance.  This may be a temporary measure and when your health or mobility improves the Care-Coordinator will refer you back to the care of the Practice Nurse or a more appropriate service, however this will be discussed with you before any decision is made.

Any individual is not housebound if they are able to leave their home, with some assistance (either with friends/family or walking aids) to visit, for example, neighbours, hairdresser, supermarket, bingo.

As from November 2022 each of our housebound patients will be individually assessed by our DMA Housebound Care-Coordinator to determine their eligibility for housebound status and home visits.  Mobile patients will, wherever possible, be asked to attend the surgery for their care in the future.

HOME VISITS

If you or someone you care for is housebound and require an Urgent home visit please ensure you telephone the surgery before 10am to make this request; you will be required to provide as much information as possible.  This will assist us in planning and prioritising the home visits each day.  Visits usually take place after morning surgery has finished.  

It is important that you inform the reception staff if you are unable to attend your appointment, this will allow that appointment to be offered to another patient. If you fail to notify the Practice that you are unable to attend, you will be sent a letter informing you that you have defaulted from your appointment. Persistent defaulters maybe removed from the list.

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.

Please attend your appointment on time, if you are late you may not be seen. If you are not seen you will not be able to rearrange your appointment until the next working day-except in the event of an medical emergency that requires immediate attention.

If you require an interpreter to attend with you when you see a clinician please notify the receptionist in advance of your appointment and they will arrange this for you.

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.

NHS Enhanced Access

From October 2022, Roborough Surgery will be offering improved access to appointments and other general practice services. This ‘enhanced access’ means:

• GP services will be providing appointments until 8pm on weekdays and from 9am-5pm on Saturdays as a minimum.
• Appointments will be both bookable in advance and available for same day (and able to be cancelled by the patient remotely).
• A mix of services will be available within these additional hours with access to the range of health professionals working in the primary care team.
• There will be a choice of ways to access appointments depending on clinical need, such as telephone or face to face.

If a face-to-face appointment is needed, it has been agreed by our Primary Care Network that this will be at your own GP practice.  The exact mix of what is provided through this enhanced offer has been determined based on local health needs, current usage of out of hours services and the views of patients.

What has changed?

Nationally, the responsibility for who arranges enhanced access services has changed. It has moved over to Primary Care Networks (PCNs). PCNS are groups of practices working together over a neighbourhood location to provide better care to their patients.

This change means that GPs and other health professionals working in our practice will have more say over how the additional appointments should be used to meet the needs of our patients.

What does this mean for me?

Patients will be able to book a GP appointment for weekday evenings and Saturday between 9am and 5pm; these sessions will be shared over our Primary Care Network. This should provide greater flexibility for patients and expand access to routine and same-day GP appointments.