Our appointment system is constantly evolving to try to meet the changing needs of our practice population.  All major changes are discussed with our patient group.

We offer appointments with our GP partners, their Registrars, our GP associate, our Nurse Practitioners, Nurses, Health Care Assistants and Phlebotomist.  Additionally we also have appointments with a Midwife, smoking cessation advisor and GP care advisor who are linked to the practice.

Who sees what?

Blood tests

Our phlebotomists are available from early morning until early afternoon for blood tests on every day. These appointments should be booked in advance but a small number are kept for same day booking. Anyone requesting a same day appointment should be accommodated. If it is not possible to do so you should be directed to another local surgery. A small proportion of the appointments  are available to book on the day for urgent tests. When no phlebotomist is available a Health Care Assistant will be able to take blood.

Health care assistants

In addition to blood tests our Healthcare Assistants (HCAs) can also see you for:

• blood pressure checks
• general health checks and lifestyle advice
• ECGs
• Follow up and minor dressings
• Some immunisations (B12 and Flu)
• Diabetic assessments including foot checks

Nurses

In addition to the items covered by the HCAs, the nurses can also see you for:

• Complex or first appointment wound dressing
• Warfarin monitoring
• Childhood immunisations
• More complex vaccinations and immunisations
• Travel vaccinations (not an NHS service)following completion of online assessment form
• Cervical smear tests

Appointments for these services should be booked in advance with a treatment room nurses, Kathy, Jackie, Amy and Helen.

Specialist nursing appointments

Kathy is our lead nurse and holds an additional qualification in the management of chronic obstructive airways disease (COPD). Appointments are available but are not in specific clinics.

Jackie is our Asthma specialist and holds chest clinics.

Helen and Pippa manage our diabetic patients. Amy is our healthy heart nurse and also leads our research team.

Appointments for phlebotomy, with the Health care Assistants and with the nursing team are available as shown in the table below.  All of these appointments should be booked in advance.

We do not offer nurse appointments for internet booking because of the complexity of booking the correct appointment with the right nurse.  As the capabilities of our computer system improve we hope to be able to do so in the future.

Nurse Practitioners

Our nurse Practitioners, Amanda and Pippa, have received training which enables them to see and manage the majority of conditions which require same day treatment (known as acute conditions). They are able to give advice, prescribe medication, give family planning advice and refer to specialists. They are not able to issue sick certificates or treat babies under 12 months old.

Their appointments are available to book on the day or for the Doctors to book following telephone assessments.

In addition to their acute appointments, Pippa manages diabetic patients and Amanda looks after many of our housebound patients and those with learning disabilities.

Diabetic appointments should be booked in advance.

When all our same day appointments have been taken we utilise a duty doctor system.  All our doctors take it in turns to act as duty doctor.
If the patient has a problem which needs to be dealt with on the day you must advise the receptionist who will take your name and contact details and a brief idea of the problem.  The contact details you provide should be a number on which you will be able to take a call in the next two to four hours. If you have problems taking calls at certain times please tell the receptionist who will annotate your details accordingly. The information which you provide about your condition enables the duty doctor to prioritise the calls.
The doctor will ring you back and wherever possible provide the advice and treatment you require.  If this is not possible on the telephone he/she will book you an appointment with an appropriate clinician.

Our intention is to provide consultations to all our patients who require same day treatment.

GP Registrars

Our GP Registrars are fully qualified doctors who have chosen to specialise in General Practice.  They are able to see and treat you in the same way as our Partners but do so under the mentorship of the GP Trainers who provide support with their knowledge and experience to help the Registrars to become fully conversant with the treatment pathways used in general practice.

GP Partners

We currently have three full time and four part-time partners.

They like to provide continuity of care and encourage patients to see of speak to their usual doctor.  However they are aware that this does cause delays in obtaining appointments especially at holiday times or when there is high demand. All practitioners in the surgery have access to comprehensive medical records for our patients.  We would therefore request that you only consult a partner if you have a complex or ongoing condition and that you choose a telephone consultation if you do not need to be examined. Queries about medication should be directed to our clinical pharmacist Sheena. Questions about sick certificates should be directed to the admin team who will obtain the information you require and get back to you as quickly as possible.

Internet Appointments

We offer appointments with the Partners, Dr Binns and the Registrars for online booking.  Some are available to book in advance whilst others become available at 7am to be booked on the same day.  If using this service, we would ask you to take care when choosing an appointment as some are for face to face and others for telephone appointments. (Several patients have visited the surgery only to discover that they have booked a telephone appointment).

Online Service

It is possible to ask the doctors and nurses questions through our website.  It is important to note that this does not apply to anything urgent.  Please use www.creffieldmedicalcentre.nhs.uk and click on treatment room.

We hope that you will find this information useful.  Please ask reception if you have any further questions.