There are many different ways you can contact the surgery

If you are registered to the NHS App or Patient Access, you can book and cancel your appointments online using these services.

Alternatively, you can call the Practice to book or cancel an appointment.

Using the online systems for appointments allows the phone lines to be freed up for more urgent appointment enquiries, so if you’re booking a routine appointment please consider using one of our online systems before telephoning the Practice.

How to book an appointment.

 

By telephone

Your request will be signposted to the most appropriate clinician to help you by our reception team. You can contact us on 01905 22888 to book your appointment.

Contacting us Online

We are now using Patient Triage to allow you to contact us.

You can;

  1. Seek medical advice online from Barbourne Health centre - there will be a few simple questions to answer about your condition so we can decide on the best course of action for you. You will be asked how you want to be contacted, this could be via text, phone or video consultation.

  2. Send a query to our admin team - you can contact us with referral queries, fit note queries etc, and the admin team can respond efficiently with a two way txt messaging service if they need more information.

  3. Self Help Information - Patient Triage can signpost you to local NHS services including pharmacies or self-referral services.

For more urgent help and assistance, please call the surgery on 01905 22888.

Direct booking via Patient Access

Routine smear tests and annual asthma reviews are available to book via Patient Access, using the button above.

  • For smear tests, please ensure your eligibility before booking.

  • For asthma reviews, please wait until the surgery has notified you to book in.

Urgent appointments (out of hours)

For any urgent appointments or emergencies, please call 01905 22888 at any time. If the Centre is closed, an answer machine will provide you with a different number to call for treatment. If it’s an emergency and you cannot wait, then please call 111.

Community Pharmacists

Quite often, it’s faster and easier for all parties involved for patients to be seen by a community pharmacist at our pharmacy of choice - please read more about this below!

Home Visits

Home visits are available for patients who are either housebound or unable to visit the Surgery due to illness. All home visits will be organized by a clinician, with more serious or urgent visits taking priority. If possible, please call the Surgery before 10:00am if you require a home visit, to give the clinician time to plan the visits.

Telephone Advice

Telephone advice is accessible by contacting our Reception and asking for telephone advice from a GP or Practice Nurse, after which someone will be in touch to give you advice over the phone.

Being Late for your appointment

Please attend your appointment on time, if you are late you may not be seen. If you are not seen, you will not be able to rearrange your appointment until the next working day; except in the event of a medical emergency that requires immediate attention.

Community Pharmacists.

 

What is the Community Pharmacist programme?

Many patients can receive same-day treatment by a Community Pharmacist, instead of having to wait for a GP appointment.

When you call the Practice, our reception team will ask a few questions to gain an understanding of your condition. If it’s deemed that you can be best helped by a Community Pharmacist, you’ll be offered a same-day private consultation with the pharmacist.

Why has this programme been brought in?

Pharmacists are fully trained healthcare professionals and experts in medicines, which allows them to offer clinical advice and over-the-counter medicines for the majority of minor illnesses, on the same day that you call us. This allows GPs to focus on the more urgent or complex issues that people may suffer from.

The pharmacist may see you in person privately, or call you for your consultation. They will be able to offer you expert advice and if necessary, can offer medicines which would help you recover.

Cancellations and DNA (Did Not Attend Policy).

Please always let us know if you don’t wish to take up your appointment. Even if it is at the last minute, we can always fill it. We understand that you may now feel better or something else has cropped up and we are happy to rearrange… But please tell us!

You can cancel by calling 01905 22888 (at any time day or night and use the automated cancellation system) or on your NHS app/Patient Access app, or via email.

Failing to turn up for an appointment .

DON’T BE A “DNA”

A DNA is someone who DID NOT ATTEND an appointment at the surgery and did not tell us beforehand so we could cancel the appointment and offer it to another patient. The Clinician was waiting, but the patient just did not attend.

DNAs are a serious problem for the NHS. Research shows that across the UK around 13 million GP appointments and 6 million practice nurse appointments are missed each year.

Barbourne Health Centre is seeing a huge increase in patients that do not attend their appointments. Some were only booked that morning! Did you try to get an appointment and couldn’t? We could have seen additional patients if all those who had made an appointment simply cancelled it when they knew they were not going to attend.

We send reminder text messages out 24 hours before your appointment

PLEASE MAKE SURE WE HAVE YOUR UP-TO-DATE MOBILE NUMBER

There is a function on that text message to cancel your appointment should you no longer need it, this will open that appointment up for someone else.

But you can also cancel by calling 01905 22888 (at any time day or night and use the automated cancellation system) or on your NHS app/Patient Access app, or via email.

Our practice policy is to review repeated DNAs.

1st DNA - A SMS text message will be sent to the Patient with the following:  

Dear Patient, We are sorry you did not attend your appointment on –/–/—- with…..  In future if you are unable to keep your appointment please ensure to notify the surgery so it can be offered to someone else. Failure to notify the Practice may result in removal from the Practice List.  

2nd DNA - A second SMS text message will be sent to Patient:

Dear Patient, We are sorry you did not attend your appointment on –/–/—- with…....  In future if you are unable to keep your appointment please ensure to notify the surgery so it can be offered to someone else. Failure to notify the Practice may result in removal from the Practice List.  

3rd DNA - Official Warning SMS text

Dear Patient, I see from our records that you failed to attend your appointment on –/–/—-_ with….   I note you have failed to attend 3 appointments within the last 12 months.  This message has been issued as a Final Warning.  If you miss one more appointment you will be removed from the Practice List.

If a patient fails to attend 4 appointments within a 12 month period they will be notified of removal from the practice list via letter.

It is always with reluctance if we have to remove a patient from our list, but missed appointments cost the NHS money, and make it harder for the rest of our local community to access appointments with us.

PLEASE HELP US BY CANCELLING ANY APPOINTMENT YOU CANNOT ATTEND.

Thank you

GP Training

Sometimes, our Health Centre will invite Nursing and Medical students to gain on-the-job experience. They may sit in on your appointments while shadowing a GP, and we hope that you will co-operate with us and help the students who are learning about general practice.

Currently, this isn’t happening at our practice. However, when we invite students again we will let you know if they will be assisting in your appointments.

Need help urgently?

Patients with urgent requirements will always be seen on the same day—but if you have an emergency you don’t think is appropriate for us, or we are closed, you should call the following numbers:

999

Patients with very serious or life-threatening health conditions, such as chest pain, severe bleeding or loss of consciousness, should phone 999 without delay.

NHS 111

Patients who are unsure whether to visit A&E for their condition, or have an urgent medical need outside of our opening hours, should call NHS 111.