Appointments Policy
Processes
When contacting the practice for an appointment, patients are informed that Stanwell Road Surgery does have a multidisciplinary collaborative team including F2 Doctors (Foundation Programme), GP Specialty Trainee (GPST2/GPST3) Physician Associates, Clinical Pharmacists, Physician Associates, GPs, Nurses and Healthcare Assistants.
Patients are also made aware if the appointment is face-to-face at the practice or a telephone consultation. The practice will also offer flexibility to patients to choose if either they prefer a telephone appointment or a Face2Face appointment, depending on availability and the nature of the problem.
The practice will make every effort to meet patient preferences to see the doctor, nurse or other healthcare professional requested when they need an appointment, although there are some occasions when this might not be possible.
On the day Appointments
All “on the day” appointments are released at 8 am, Monday to Friday. These include appointments with our GPs, Physician Associates and Trainee Doctors. Patients are informed of whom they will be seeing. Appointments are offered on a first-come, first-served basis
All patients are made aware that is only one problem per appointment, as the doctor might not have the time to deal with more than one health concern and is more difficult for doctors to practice safely and effectively when they're dealing with multiple problems.
When patients telephone the practice to request an on-the-day appointment, the team will ask some questions so they are able to make the correct appointment or provide the correct guidance. For example, your condition may be better suited to be dealt with you attending a local pharmacy, Ashford Hospital walk-in centre or St Peter’s A&E, other than at the practice.
Routine Appointments
The practice aims to be able to offer an appointment to patients within a reasonable time frame. All routine appointments should be booked using the specific allocated slots. All routine appointments can be booked either by telephone or by walk -in. For continuity of care the routine follow-up appointments should be booked with the clinician the patient has been consulting with unless an alternative clinician has been specified, i.e. Blood results, or requested by the patient.
Walk-In Patients
For “On the day” appointments, and for the practice to be able to offer a fair opportunity to all patients groups, we ask all patients to call in instead of coming in to the practice, however the practice will provide flexibility to those patients that can’t call us (elderly /disabled/vulnerable, etc).
No Availability
The practice does have limited capacity for same-day appointments. When the capacity is reached, the team will help all patients that require an appointment to find an alternative health service, ie Ashford Walk-in Centre, St Peters Hospital A&E, Local Pharmacist, AIC or 111. Once the practice reaches “on the day” capacity the team will inform management to update the phone system with a “no appointment” message. This message includes all the alternative services available.