Requesting doctor appointments has changed

On Wednesday March we moved to a new way to book doctor (and Advanced Nurse Practitioner) appointments. You can now request an appointment by phone or online. The forms are available on our website (click the Online Services button on the top right of the screen).

Requests will be triaged by a doctor and you will be notified of the outcome – this may be a phone call to book a same-day appointment; contacted to book a less urgent or routine appointment – this could be via booking link; contacted to book a physio appointment; or directed to other healthcare professionals, including the community pharmacy.

We appreciate that this is a new system for patients and for staff but feedback so far has been really positive. We had a trial a few weeks ago and the online requests have been available for non-urgent appointments from 3 March.

Some of the forms are restricted to align with our opening times and may be unavailable if we are at capacity. We have safe levels of working and run an appointment based system, like many other organisations. Our resources are therefore limited, so there will be times when we have to sign-post you to 111, overflow clinics or out-of-hours clinics in Bishop Auckland – or you wait until the next day.

We are working through a small amount of appointments that are waiting for named GP slots – we will be in touch with these patients as the new rotas are added to the system. You do not need to chase these appointments unless your condition has worsened.

Please note that you can not currently request appointments via the NHS App. We have been notified that this is in development.

We hope that you find the new process works well and reduces the need to contact us by phone. We also hope that from 5 March, patients who need to see a doctor will be able to and sooner rather than later. I think everyone would agree that patients demanding to see a doctor when their health concern is not urgent or could be dealt with by a different healthcare professional, isn’t best use of doctor time.

There is no change to how you book HCA and Nurse appointments – please continue to contact the practice by phone or use text booking links if you have been sent one. If you do use an online form, a member of our medical administration team will be in touch to book your appointment.