Allerton Medical Centre

Westfield Medical Centre

Appointments

If you need medical advice or treatment please ring us on 0113 295 3460 or visit allertonwestfield.nhs.uk and complete an accuRx enquiry. For urgent issues or out of hours, you can also call the NHS on 111 or go online to seek NHS advice 111.nhs.uk.

APPOINTMENTS UPDATE

There continues to be a lot of media coverage about access to GP Practices. We want to reassure patient that we are still open and here for you. Clinicians will continue to see patients face-to-face when needed. While demand for same-day appointments remains in excess of what we are able to provide each day, we are continuing to provide services by prioritising delivering care based on clinical needs.

Appointments are being delivered face-to-face, by telephone, or messaging to your mobile or computer. If you have urgent concerns, the practice team will assess what is most appropriate for you. If you have a preference, please let us know.

When you phone or go online, you will often be asked to provide some information about your healthcare need. The practice healthcare team uses this information to assess the most appropriate way and the best person to provide your care. This may of course include a face-to-face consultation. Despite what you may have seen in the national media, face-to-face GP appointments are available to all patients, and you are always welcome to request this. However, if your symptoms are concerning, a clinician may feel it more appropriate to consult with you sooner via another means.

Online consultation requests for non-urgent help will be responded to as soon as possible, usually within two working days. Your local pharmacy is also a great place for clinical advice on minor health concerns.

The last few years have been a very challenging time for all of us, and have irreversibly changed the nature of Primary Care. We are very proud of our team here who have continued to work throughout the pandemic. Please remember, our staff are doing their best for you. Abusive or offensive behaviour towards them will not be tolerated.

GP appointments

You can either phone the Practice or submit an accuRx request. You may be offered a ‘routine’ appointment that can be booked directly into the diary, or for any requests that you feel require more urgent attention, the GP can ‘triage’ (assess) the details you give and respond either with an appointment offer or further advice and consultation. If a formal appointment is needed at this stage, the GP will either arrange a telephone/video consultation or ask you to come to the surgery to see them in person.

If you or anyone in your household have a confirmed case of Coronavirus, please do not attend any face to face appointments but instead contact us to change to a telephone call in the first instance.

Other services – Musculoskeletal (MSK) team, clinical pharmacists, Healthy Minds service and social prescribing.

It may be that you are offered an appointment with a different service even if you have asked to see a GP. This is because there are other healthcare providers who may be able to give you appropriate care more quickly than the next available GP appointment.

MSK team – First appointments will be a 20 minute assessment over the phone with follow-up consultation as needed. If a face to face appointment is needed, the team will arrange one for you. They are also the best team to make any onwards referrals to hospital or community-based physiotherapy services but they are usually able to complete treatment within their team.

Clinical Pharmacists – Clinical Pharmacists are based both within our practice team and other services. They are best placed to conduct medication reviews, answer any queries with regards to medication changes or interactions as well as managing conditions like hypertension.

Healthy Minds – this team supports people with low-level mental health problems arising from life challenges such as anxiety, work-based stress or bereavement. Appointments are either 30 minutes or an hour and they can share coping strategies as well as directing to other cources of care and support.

Social Prescribing – this team provides support for non-medical issues and worries. This can cover a wide range of issues from supporting carers, lessening social isolation to worries with money.

Nursing appointments

We offer a range of face-to-face, pre-bookable nursing appointments. These include dressings for patients who can’t self-manage, immunisations – all child/adolescent vaccinations/flu/whooping cough for pregnant women, shingles and pneumonia for eligible patients, bloods tests and ECGs as requested by GP, smears and mental health depot injections and most long-term condition reviews.

Home visits

If you think that you need a doctor to come and visit you, please call as early in the day as possible – and before 11.00 am. The doctor will call you back to discuss the problem.

We offer home visits to patients who are receiving care at the end of life or who are unable to leave their home. The definition of “housebound” we use is:

“A patient who is deemed to be housebound when they are unable to leave their home environment through a physical or psychological illness.

A patient is not considered housebound if he or she is able to leave their house with minimal assistance or support to visit public or social recreational public services (including shopping) or attend other healthcare settings.

Minimal assistance would be described as a person who can leave their own home and travel to a clinic appointment in a vehicle such as a personal car, taxi or public transport adapted or not adapted for their use and with or without the use of a wheelchair either by themselves or with an escort.”

Cancellations, missed appointments and late arrivals

If you cannot attend your appointment, please let us know as soon as possible so the slot can be given to someone else. This applies even if your appointment is a phone appointment. You can cancel by texting CANCEL in reply to your appointment reminder text or by calling the surgery.

Missed appointments are a wasted resource and reduce the time available to patients. More than three appointments in a 12-month period ,without letting us know, could mean your removal from our practice list.

If you arrive late but still within your appointment slot, we will do our best to see you. However, we may ask you to rebook to make sure that other patients are not delayed.

If the doctor or nurse calls you for an appointment and you do not answer, they will try once more. If they are unable to reach you then you will need to contact the surgery to book another appointment.

 

Date published: 8th October, 2014
Date last updated: 22nd February, 2024