Appointment Information

To request a routine appointment in the next two weeks:

• phone us on 01623 551015, Monday to Friday during our opening hours. 
• visit the practice and speak with a receptionist, Monday to Friday during our opening hours. 
• use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App)

When you get in touch, we'll ask what you need help with. We will use the information you give us to direct you to the most appropriate doctor, nurse or health professional to help you.

We may offer you a consultation:

• by phone
• face to face at the practice

To contact a Doctor online, you can use a website called AccuRx. You don't need an account to use this website.

This website will be available to you Monday to Friday 8:00am-6:30pm.

If you need urgent help, please call the practice.

For non-urgent medical or administrative help, you can contact us using our online consultation tool.

This service allows you to tell us about your symptoms, ask questions, or request advice without needing to phone or attend the surgery.

Your request will be reviewed by our clinical or administrative team. Submissions are reviewed during our normal working hours, and we will provide a response once your request has been assessed.

Response times can differ depending on the nature of your enquiry and overall demand. Please note: this service is not monitored continuously, and response times may vary.

If you have a medical emergency or need help outside of practice hours, please contact NHS 111 or 999 as appropriate.

To change or cancel your appointment:

• use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App)
• using the GP online system – SystmOnline
• phone us on 01623 551015, Monday to Friday during our opening hours. 

Most of our patients know it can sometimes be difficult to a get a routine appointment with a GP or Nurse within a certain time frame.  Where such demand is unpredictable, this cannot easily be remedied.  One thing that makes this even more difficult to overcome is the problem of missed appointments.

The cost in time and money is a burden to the National Health Service and the Practice cannot sustain this.  Remember that your missed appointment is another patient’s denied appointment.

Please help us to best utilise our appointments by cancelling any future appointments immediately upon realising you do not need it or cannot attend the booked time. This can be done either by phoning 01623 551015 or by replying to your reminder sent the day before your appointment.

DNA Policy

A DNA occurs when an appointment is not attended and the patient has not contacted the practice in advance to cancel it, or where the cancellation is within 1 hour of the appointment leaving it impossible to allocate that time to another patient who needs treatment.

The practice will document this DNA and this will prompt a retrospective check on the number of DNAs recorded against that person.  As such, the following applies:

1st DNA

Where this is the first occasion, this will be documented on the patients medical records, and the patient is contacted by Email or SMS.

2nd DNA

Where this is the second occasion, the patient will be contacted by the practice, advised of their second missed appointment within a 12 month period, and informed that if a further appointment is DNA’d within the 12 month period, they could be at risk of compromising their relationship with the practice.

3rd DNA

Where a third DNA has occurred, the practice will review the individual case and a decision will be taken with regard to addressing the patient’s future ability to pre-book routine appointments.  The practice will consider whether consistent failure to adhere to our practice policy constitutes a breakdown between the patient and the GP (where the GP Practice has given clear instruction on policy and service provision and the patient has chosen to disregard this on several occasions in spite of due warning).   This ultimately could result in being removed from the Practice List.

It should be noted that, whilst unacceptable in most cases, there may be extenuating circumstances as to why the patient has failed to attend their appointment. Therefore, prior to any correspondence being sent to a patient, it would be reasonable to discuss this with their clinician.

Any correspondence sent to patients relating to DNA’s are only valid for a 12 month period.  All correspondence will be saved in each patient’s electronic health records.

By reducing the number of DNAs, the Practice will:

• Enhance the efficiency of clinical sessions
• Reduce costs
• Increase productivity
• Offer a more effective service to patients
• Enable more effective booking of slots

How to Avoid This

If you cannot attend or no longer need an appointment, please ring us in advance – ideally 24 hours before the scheduled appointment.

Mistakes do happen and the practice understand that appointments can be forgotten about or overlooked.  However, each patient receives a reminder 24 hours before the appointment. If you are not receiving these please check with Reception to make sure we have the correct contact details for you.

Whilst we are happy to make a home visit to those patients who are too ill to attend surgery or are housebound, we ask patients to use this service considerately.

We find it is much more effective to see our patients at the surgery where there are the facilities for examination and investigation (e.g. blood tests or heart tracing etc) when needed. If you do need a home visit, please request it before 11:00am if possible.

Our GP's may ring you before visiting and our care navigators may ask for brief details of the nature of the problem to help the GP's to prioritise visits. You may also be referred to the Home Visiting Service ran by PICS. This service is to assess patients earlier in the day and is commissioned by Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB. It is a nurse led service and has been designed to assist GPs. A full report is sent back to the practice on completion of the visit and appropriate follow up will be arranged where indicated and visits are carried out during the course of the day. 

In addition to our usual opening hours, patients can access evening and weekend appointments which are offered by the local practices in the Ashfield North Primary Care Network. These incudes King's Medical Centre, Woodlands Medical Practice, Willowbrook Medical Practice and Brierley Park Medical Group. 

Appointments will be available weekdays up to 8pm in our local area and also on Saturday mornings and Sunday's by rota. These appointments are for non-emergencies and are prebookable only. Please contact reception on 01623 551015 for more information. 

Please tell us:

• If there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to respond
• If you would prefer to consult with the doctor or nurse by phone, face-to-face, by video call or by text or email
• If you need an interpreter
• If you have any other access or communication needs

The NHS app is a quick way to access NHS services, without needing to contact a GP. You can read more about the app on the NHS website.

You can request an appointment online using your NHS account. You will need the NHS app and an account. You’ll then be asked to provide information about your request. We’ll review your answers during practice hours and contact you to make sure you get the right help.

This could be

• self-care advice
• a follow-up phone call
• a follow-up video call
• an in-person appointment

You need to be registered with the practice to use this service.