We appreciate its a difficult time to get an appointment. The purpose of this post is to explain our access model at Boroughbury Medical Centre.
The majority of our appointment requests are ‘routine’ if you have a routine query please use our online Patient Triage tool. This allows you to describe your issue , state your concerns and your preferred method of contact. We aim to offer an appointment within 2-3 working days. If you do not have Internet access you can call to speak to a member of Patient Services.
If you have an urgent on the day query you will need to call on the day at 8am. Please note we have limited capacity for appointments. If an appointment isn’t available you may be directed to NHS 111 service of a community Pharmacy. The appointment rota for GPs are released 2 weeks in advance, we cater for pre bookable and on the day appointments. When we have low-capacity for appointments we revert to an on the day service. We appreciate it is frustrating to be asked to call back at 8am, but there is the Patient Triage tool that can be used.
Our practice has a patient list of 30,000. This does present challenges especially accessing an appointment at peak times (usually 8-10am). We have taken steps to make getting an appointment a better experience with our cloud based telephone system and Patient Triage online.
The Clinicians providing patient facing care have expanded significantly in recent years to manage the pressures facing the NHS. We employ Nurse Practitioners, Primary Care Practitioners (Paramedics), Practice Pharmacists, First Contact Physiotherapists, Pharmacy Technicians, Nurse Trainees, GP trainees, General Practice Assistants, Care Coordinators and a Social Prescriber. These additional roles compliment the traditional GP, Practice Nurse and Healthcare assistant.
We operate a hybrid access model, which is a mixture of face to face and telephone appointments. We are booking mainly face to face appointments. If you get a telephone appointment this can be converted to a face to face review if required.
Our Werrington branch surgery offers face to face appointments.
The access model is reviewed on a regular basis so that we can achieve the right balance of appointments to manage appointment demand.