Booking Appointments

Please telephone reception during opening hours to book an appointment with the Doctor or Practice Nures. The Receptionists are here to help you. They have a difficult job, with a large volume of phone calls and enquiries to handle. When telephoning for an appointment the receptionist may ask for a few details. They work to a practice protocol and they have been trained to make these enquiries so that we can help you in the most appropriate way.

It is requested that patients phone between 11.00 am  -  4.00 pm for general enquiries and results.

Do not telephone for regular repeat prescription.

The Nurse Practitioner is able to offer you advise on a range of problems including:-

and is available on the telephone 8.30 am - 12.30 pm each day.

Pre-bookable appointments.

All doctors have a range of pre-bookable appointments available for patients please be patient while the receptionist finds you a suitable time. Your doctor is prepared to book these for follow up appointments and reception is able to use any unbooked pre-bookable appointments up to two weeks in advance. We feel that this works well for both the patient and the practice, so if you feel you need a pre-bookable appointment please call reception. But remember these are limited in number.

 

Online Booking

A small number of appointments are available on the internet and can be booked through our website nightingalesurgery.com. Please give us as much information as possible, we may be required to change the appointment if it is not appropriate.

 

Cancelling Appointments

We have worked very hard to meet the guidelines of 24 hour access to a health care professional. We still have a number of patients who don't inform us in  time for us to be able to reuse that appointment.

Please give us notice if you cannot attend.

 

Doctors Availability

This is the normal weekly diary. When our doctors are away on courses or annual leave a notice is displayed in the waiting room. 

Dr Lucy Sadler:    Tuesday and Thursday

Dr Paul Little:    Wednesday and Thursday - mornings only.

Dr Katie Warner:    Tuesday and Friday.

Dr Greg Warner:    Monday and Wednesday.

Dr Richard Peace:    Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Dr Susan Tippett:    Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Dr Peter White:        Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Dr Clare Polack:       Monday and Wednesday (currently on Maternity leave)

(for the Practice Nurses please see separate page)

 

Duty Doctor

Each day one of our doctors acts as 'Duty Doctor' and may be called away during surgery on an urgent matter. Reception will inform you if your Doctor is Duty 

 

Consultations

Appointments are for 10 minutes duration and are for one member of the family only. If you feel you need a longer or shorter appointment please ask the receptionist at the time of booking. If there are no appointments available for your own doctor on a particular day, you will be asked to see another doctor. Urgent cases will always be seen on the same day.

Please explain the circumstances to the receptionist and they will do their best to help you. Some appointments such as Well Women, medicals and minor surgery will be for 20-30 minutes. Please advise the reception staff at the time of booking.

Out of Hours

Between the hours Friday 6.30pm and Monday 8.00am, and every evening between  6.30pm and 8.00am the following morning our Doctors are not available.  When phoning the surgery you will be diverted to an out of hours provider, you may be offered telephone advice, or asked to attend an Out of Hours centre, or in certain cases you will be visited by a deputising doctor.

Home Visits

Please telephone 01794 517878 to request a Doctors visit (if possible before 10.30 am for non-urgent visits). Please give our receptionist as much information as possible to ensure urgent visits are given the priority they deserve. Children and babies who are ill can usually be brought safely to the surgery by car. Potentially infectious cases can be isolated at the Surgery and will be seen as quickly as possible.

Chaperones

You may feel an intimate examination requires a chaperone, please inform reception or the doctor or nurse you are seeing and we will arrange someone to be with you. If a trained chaperone is not available we may need to make another appointment at a more convenient time.