Appointments

Here at St Mary’s Medical Centre, we offer a wide range of both telephone and face to face appointments.

Some GP appointments and all Nurse appointments can be pre booked but please feel free to ring on the day to ask if there are any cancellations.  Pre bookable appointments allow you to see the GP of your choice and we encourage you to use the pre bookable appointments for continuing problems and follow up appointments. On the day appointments become available at 8am and these are often used by patients with an acute or urgent problem.

Our appointments can be booked at the reception desk, ringing the surgery or via online access.

Please note when you ring for an appointment our receptionist will ask you what the appointment is regarding, this is to help you get seen by the correct clinician in the least amount of time.

Our receptionists are also able to sign post you to other services if necessary.

Urgent Appointments

If you feel you need an urgent appointment, we aim to see you for the same day however you may be asked for more details so that a doctor can advise on the most appropriate time/place for you to be seen.

Children Appointments

We will see all children aged 5 years and under on the same day where clinically necessary.

If your child is unwell and you feel they need to be seen urgently we encourage you to ring our reception team for an appointment, you may be asked questions regarding the problem so that a doctor can determine whether the medical issue is urgent or can be dealt with routinely.

We may also offer you an appointment for your child at the Paediatric Service which is based at the Integrated Care Centre. Please see below for more information.

Enhanced Access Service  

We now offer appointments via the Enhanced Access Service; this service is based at the Integrated Care Centre offering evening and weekend appointments which are bookable via our reception team.

The Enhanced Access Service offer a wide range of appointments in the evenings and at the weekend including the below

• GP Appointments
• Practice Nurse Appointments (for cervical smear tests and reviews of long-term conditions)
• Paediatric Service Appointments
• Phlebotomy and HCA Appointments

Please note when ringing the surgery if we are fully booked or the Enhanced Access Service can offer you an appointment at sooner date then you will be offered the option of booking an appointment there. You can also request appointments via this service if they are more convenient to you.

Contact Information

Please make sure your contact details are up to date. If we hold the wrong mobile number or no number at all for you then you will not receive any telephone call appointment’s as we will be unable to get in touch and you will also not receive any appointment reminders.

Cancellations

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else.  We require at least 30 minutes notice to cancel appointments, otherwise it will be marked down as a non-attendance.  This is to allow us time to hopefully use the appointment again for someone else. 

In March 169 appointments were wasted by patients failing to attend.  If you cannot attend for an appointment, please ring and cancel it in good time so that it can be used for someone else.  

If you receive a text message reminder for your appointment you can always cancel it simply by replying CANCEL to the message.