At Barwell and Hollycroft Medical Centre our appointment system is always under review to try and meet demand and to keep patients happy.
In order to try and keep up with demand, which has gone up dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic, we run a triage on the day system.
Routinely we are offering over 500 GP appointments a week for our population of over 14,400 patients with over 400 nursing appointments weekly.
On top of these appointments we have our PCN (Primary Care Network) staff working alongside us. These consist of
Paramedics
Pharmacists & Pharmacist technicians
Mental Health Facilitators
Nurse Associates
Social Prescribers
Health Coach
Physio therapists
All of which offer appointments in practice.
We have also teamed up with our local practices as a collective to be able to offer “Extended Access” which provides appointments outside of the usual GP opening hours.
How to get an appointment & what appointment do I need?
Do I need a GP appointment? For many minor illness and ailments the answer is generally no, we ask that patients seek advice from their local pharmacists who will be able to provide over the counter medications initially. They can often help with;
Coughs & Colds
Hayfever
Rashes & stings
Our team of Receptionists may ask to make a referral into this service on your behalf where appropriate, they have been trained on what the local pharmacists can see, and if they are a prescribing chemist they may ask that they refer you for things such as UTIs or Chest Infections as the pharmacist will be able to give antibiotics if needed.
The pharmacist couldn’t help and asked me to call the GP:-
No problem, the Reception staff will ask you a series of questions. This is not to be nosey, this is so that they can get you to the most appropriate person in the practice.
For example if you have back pain then the Physio will be able to see you usually within 2 weeks, they will be able to order tests where needed such as xrays etc, and they will be able to get you to secondary care physio therapy quicker then the GP as they will have done the initial assessment.
Once the Receptionist has a understanding of the issue they will sign post you to the most appropriate appointment. Either a Physio, Nurse, Paramedic or GP etc. They may ask that you send in a photo of the issue for the clinician to review prior to your appointment.
Our on the day appointments open at 8am. GPs will take the medical history over the phone and if a face to face is needed they will arrange a time that suits you to be seen that day.
We offer pre-bookable appointments (the wait can be up to 3 weeks for these depending on which GP you wish to speak to).
Extended access appointments may be offered where available, these are at Centre Surgery in Hinckley or Newbold Verdon.
Nurse appointments can be booked online or via the practice – Please be aware that blood tests must be requested by a clinician or the hospital prior to booking. Any inappropriate bookings will be cancelled.
Urgent appointments when all of our routine appointments are taken the practice has an on call or duty doctor. The reception has a template that they must fill out when a patient requests an urgent appointment. This allows the duty doctor to easily triage which appointments they need to speak to and which can be asked to wait. Please be as open and detailed as possible with the staff trying to take your information. This duty GP deals with all urgent requests from EMAS, patients, hospitals etc, all medication requests from the day and urgent letters and results. If your appointment is not urgent for that day you may be offered an alternative appointment.
Home Visits : We request all home visits to be requested by 10am. Only those who are clinically housebound are able to have a house visit. The duty GP allocates home visits to clinicians that are in that day or where appropriate to the Acute Visiting Service. Please call the surgery in the morning and speak to one of the reception staff who will help you.
To Cancel your appointment please call the practice and listen to the options there is a facility to leave a message with the admin team, alternatively send a AccuRx message or speak to one of our team. If you have online access you can cancel this appointment online. To change the appointment please speak to one of the team.
If you have a query anything that you does not need an appointment, request a sick note, enquire about a result or referral, or any other admin query please use the online services and AccuRx form and this will be dealt with.
We do understand that patients can get frustrated, we are here to help and do our best in very difficult times. Please be kind to all of our staff. Any violence or aggression towards them may end up in your removal from the practice list.