The doctors will always try to see you on time, but some patients may require more time or occasionally the doctor may be called to an emergency, we will endeavour to inform you should any delay occur.
Our Appointment System
We run a 10-minute appointment system; you will be given a time at which the doctor, nurse of other member of the Primary healthcare Team hopes to see you.
Please try and be punctual, if you arrive late this may cause delays and inconvenience to other patients.
You should not wait more than 30 minutes without receiving an explanation for the delay.
Please ask for more than one appointment if you wish for more than one patient to be seen.
We will try to ensure that you are seen on time but some consultations take longer than others and we have no way of knowing this in advance. If there is a patient with an emergency or serious problem, we will give them priority.
If we are running late please be patient because on another occasion it might be you who needs the extra time; please don’t blame the receptionists.
If you have a particularly complicated problem or several matters to raise, please bear in mind that this may need to be spread over more than one consultation.
Telephone Consultations
The surgery now offers telephone consultations for patients that may not need to be seen by the doctor or nurse.
We recognise that for a number of problems it may be more appropriate and more convenient to speak to the doctor or nurse by telephone rather than coming in to the surgery in person.
If you feel that a telephone consultation would be more appropriate, you should contact the surgery to request a call.
If after speaking to you, the doctor or nurse feels that you should be seen, they will give you an appointment to come in on that day.
Cancelling an Appointment
If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order to enable us to offer the slot to another patient.
Appointments can also be cancelled online or by text message.
Extended Hours and Improved Access
We have appointments available after 6.30pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays across all of our sites for GPs, Nurse Practitioners and Practice Nurses; these appointments can be helpful for those patients who find attending an appointment at the surgery during the usual opening hours difficult.
We are also working with our local colleagues and can book appointments in the evenings and at weekends across Dorset; these appointments are usually run from the local community hospitals.
Our Reception team will be happy to make you an appointment with this service, please ask when you call or at reception.