Feltwell Surgery-Clinics-Surgeries-Booking Appointments

Appointments

Improved Access Service
West Norfolk Health (WNH) are able to offer improved access to GP and nurse appointments at one of our hubs across West Norfolk. WNH have eight hubs in total spread across West Norfolk.

How do I access the service?
The provision of this service is available to patients who are registered with one of the 21 surgeries within West Norfolk. (Feltwell Surgery are one of these). Appointments are made by calling your own GP Surgery and are available to patients on equal footing to appointments within regular surgery hours.

What appointments are available?
We offer appointments Monday to Friday from 6:30pm - 8pm, on Saturdays 8am - 1 pm and on Sundays 9am -12pm.

What conditions can be treated?
A mixture of routine and pre-bookable and same day appointments for general consultation.

Patients who cannot be seen:

	Babies under 12 weeks old
	Pregnancy-related problems
	Severe mental health problems
	Patients identified with a potentially life-threatening medical condition which requires referral to urgent or emergency care settings
	Walk-in patients

Booking Appointments
All surgeries and clinics at Feltwell Surgery are by appointment. The following information can help you when booking an appointment.

Our appointments consist of:

	Routine pre-bookable appointments (up to 8 weeks in advance).
	Book on the Day appointments with a GP (for any urgent condition that needs to be seen immediately/the same day).
	Minor Illness appointments (most new illnesses, that need to be seen the same day and can be seen by the Nursing Team).
	Chronic Disease Management appointments (these are usually via invitation with the Practice Nurse).

Appointments can be made by either telephone, in person, or in some cases, online (routine GP appointments only).

Pre-bookable appointments (ie non- urgent or follow up appointments) can be made at any time.

Book on the Day appointments have to be made from 8:00 the same day and are on a first come first served basis (these appointments are only for urgent illnesses that need to be seen the same day). For follow up appointments you will be offered the next available pre-bookable appointment.

	If the Doctor of your choice is not available then you will be offered an appointment with another Doctor or one of the Practice Nurses.
	The switchboard is extremely busy between 08:00 and 09:00, we would be grateful if you could avoid ringing during these times for anything other than urgent or Book on the Day appointments.

Telephone Consultations
These are available each day for patients who do not require a face to face consultation with a doctor (ie a query or to pass on information etc). If you feel that speaking to a doctor would save attending for an appointment, please telephone and explain to the receptionist what you need to know. The information will be confirmed and either the doctor or an appropriate member of the Practice staff will telephone you back.

It is the patients responsibility to inform the Surgery if they are unable to keep an appointment. You can now make, view or cancel your appointments online, please ask at reception for further details. Failure to cancel any unwanted appointments may lead to you being removed from the Practice list.

Patients who require emergency treatment outside of our opening times are asked to telephone our Medical Answering Service 111, who will direct the call appropriately.

Cancelling Unwanted Appointments
We are experiencing a high volume of DNA's (missed appointments) lately, on average 127 per month. This equates to 24hours worth of appointments with a GP/nurse per month! We are trying hard to reduce this by the following means:

	Operating a text appointment reminder service. (please keep us updated with your mobile number)
	Putting the date and time of your next appointment on your repeat medication slip.
	You can now cancel any unwanted appointments online, please ask at reception for details on how to register for this service.
	DNA policy - If after 2 x consecutive missed appointments or 3 in a year, you will receive a 1st warning letter, if you then miss a further appointment you will receive a 2nd warning letter. If any further missed appointments occur, unfortunately you will be deducted from our Practice register.

Please help us to help you. We want you to be able to have an appointment of your choice, with a GP/nurse of your choice. By not cancelling your unwanted appointments, you are preventing someone else from having them.