Over the last two years we have made significant changes to the way we structure our appointments and support our patients in accessing the care they need. We are pleased that the recent National GP Patient Survey shows that our patients have a good experience of contacting the practice and know what the next steps will be when they do.
Since February we have taken steps to address long waiting times for routine GP appointments and now everyone who needs one is offered an appointment within two weeks of contacting us.
We want to improve this experience further still.
Your feedback has told us that the waiting times on the phones are still too long in busy periods and that often there isn’t a choice of routine appointments available. We have worked with the providers of our Ask First App to make this much easier to use.
Patients can use the App to directly book an urgent (on the day) appointment or submit a request for a routine GP appointment.
Urgent Appointments
The Ask First App will take patients through a series of clinically validated questions to triage their concern and offer an appointment, if required.
Please note, the Ask First App has direct access to all our available appointments. However, if there are no appointments available and your problem is urgent, requiring same day attention, please call the surgery on 0203 826 0826 (Monday – Friday 08:00 – 18:30).
Routine Appointments
From 4th September 2024 all routine GP appointment requests will need to be made via the Ask First App. This process takes less than 3 minutes to complete and will shorten the wait on the phones for those patients who cannot use a digital device, or for those with problems of an urgent nature.
Patients will be asked a few questions, including if they prefer to see a particular GP, and then their appointment request will be logged. Patients will receive a response from the practice by the end of the next working day (18:30 Monday – Friday).
To improve the choice of non-urgent appointments available to patients we will be releasing all our appointments one week ahead. This will mean appointments are available on different days and with different clinicians when you contact us. It also means shorter waiting times and fewer appointments being missed.
Please note, nursing appointments and medication reviews are not yet available to book online. If you need to book an appointment with a nurse or your medication review, please call the practice on 0203 826 0826.
We continuously monitor our appointment capacity and demand and welcome feedback from patients about their experience.