Changes to appointments – eastquaymedicalcentre

Improving your medical care

In recent years, as requests for urgent appointments have increased, we have swapped capacity from routine to urgent

This means waiting lists increase, and urgent demand increases again

Urgent appointments aren’t the best medical care, especially if they are unlimited:

It means you often don’t see your own GP, who really knows you
And it means you get less time with the GP
And the GP is tired, having seen an unsafe level of patients – meaning you don’t get the best care.

We know that we provide the best care when:

You see your own GP
Your GP has time to really understand your problem and consider how best to help
We are able to offer routine appointments soon – meaning the waiting list isn’t too long

So we are:

Increasing the Nurse-Led Minor Illness appointments – meaning you will usually see a Nurse for minor illness
Asking all patients with urgent problems to come in for a face to face appointment, rather than telephone
Increasing the number of routine GP appointments
Reducing the number of GP urgent appointments

Please help by:

Following self-care advice on minor illness
Downloading and using the HandiApp
Using the Community Pharmacy Referral Service if offered
Seeing the Nurse-Led service for minor illness if you or your child do need to be seen by us
Choosing a routine appointment with your own GP unless your problem is medically urgent
Only asking for an urgent appointment if your problem really cannot wait. If you do need an urgent appointment, this will be face to face
Being patient whilst we implement the changes.
Waiting times will reduce, but this may take a little while. The impact on the health care we provide you will make it worth it!
Please be kind to reception.

Thank you for supporting these changes that mean we all:

Improving your medical care