** COVID-19 Update**

Improved Access appointments are temporarily unavailable due to resources being redirected.

We appreciate that for some patients especially those Key Workers, this may be disappointing - we would urge these patients to access our patient services either via Doctorlink or via our contact centre 01225 866611 - If deemed appropriate your GP may be able to offer you an online consultation

IMPROVED ACCESS TO PRIMARY CARE

Do you struggle to attend appointments during the working week?

Wiltshire patients can now arrange to be seen in the following clinics outside of normal hours:

18:30-20:00 Monday-Friday

& Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday mornings.

Practices across West Wiltshire are working together to provide additional appointments, you may need to travel to be seen by another surgery.

For Bradford on Avon & Melksham Health Partnership: Monday to Thursday evenings will be provided at The Health Centre in Bradford on Avon, with Friday evenings and Saturday mornings being provided from one of three hubs in rotation Giffords Surgery in Melksham, Trowbridge Health Centre or Westbury Group Practice. Sunday mornings will be provided from Southbroom Surgery in Devizes.

To book one of these appointments, please contact your registered Surgery during normal opening hours.

You will need to give consent for your medical information to be shared between Practices to use this service.

This is aimed at those patients who are unable to access daytime medical care during the week and we anticipate that demand may be high, so please bear with us, particularly during this pilot phase.

For more information, please contact your usual GP surgery.

‘CALL FIRST’ APPOINTMENT SYSTEM

When you call the the Practice to make an appointment, you will now be asked the following questions:

• Is this a new or ongoing health issue
• A brief description of your symptoms (in confidence) 

This will help the appointment staff manage your appointment effectively, as it might be more appropriate for you to see one of our Emergency Nurses.

If you need to make an appointment with your doctor, the appointment staff will add your details to your chosen doctor’s telephone consultation list. The doctor will then call you back as soon as possible. For more information please click the following links:

Patients FAQ fact sheet 

Accessing Appropriate Healthcare

Bradford on Avon & Winsley Appointment Leaflet    Page 1  Page 2

 Why does the Receptionist ask me for ‘some idea of the problem’?

The Doctors have implemented a monthly ‘topic of focus’ which aims to raise awareness of current important national and local health campaigns but also to provide a ‘spotlight’ on certain areas/projects the Practice is directly involved in.

The focus for April 2015 is the appointments system and why the Doctors have trained the staff to ask patients for ‘some idea of the problem’ when making an appointment booking.

For information on this subject, please click here to download the appointments system Practice leaflet.

Please see the on-line appointment tab (above) for more information about booking your appointment on-line!

All the doctors and nurses work to appointments and we run 2 sessions each day, a morning session and an afternoon session.

We also offer a selection of appointments outside our normal working hours for those patients who find it difficult to make routine appointments due to work and family commitments during the working day.

To book an appointment please telephone your surgery.

Help us to Help You!

The doctors of the practice have formulated a home treatment guide to help you manage COMMON AILMENTS at home such as cystitis, stomach ache, earache and sinusitis to name but a few.

To find out more, CLICK HERE to read on...

Appointment Cancellation Line

As well as cancelling your appointment online, you can also cancel your appointment via our telephone cancellation line on 01225 860025.

It's a voicemail service, so you will just need to leave a message including your name, date of birth, time of appointment and who it's with.

The cancellation line is regularly checked by our staff throughout the day.

Extended Hours

We offer appointments outside the Practice's normal working hours for those patients who find it difficult to make appointments due to work and family commitments, during the normal working week.

These surgeries are usually held on a Monday Evening at The Health Centre.  Patients have the opportunity to book a telephone consultation with a Doctor or a face to face appointment during these times.

Telephone consultations are also available with a Doctor on a Friday morning before 8am and any week day evening from 6.30pm.  Please ask the receptionist to book your appointment.

Text message appointment reminders!

Since 11th January 2012, we have automatically sent appointment reminders by text message to patients who have given us a mobile phone number, but due to changes in data protection guidance, from 2nd June 2014 we will only send text message appointment reminders to patients who have specifically contacted us to confirm that they would like to receive them.

To let us know you are happy to continue to receive appointment reminders by text, please simply click here to submit a consent form to us on-line. Alternatively mention this to the receptionist the next time you need to telephone/visit the surgery.

If you do not wish to receive appointment reminders (by text) from the surgery, you do not need to do anything.

Please note: we will still continue to send generic text messages (to patients who have given us their mobile phone number) regarding the following services:

• Seasonal texts - such as flu vaccination reminders
• Reminders for annual reviews, for patients who may have a Chronic Disease
• Any other instance where we would share generic practice information/changes to services

I f you do not wish to receive ANY text messages at all, please speak to the receptionist and this will be indicated on your medical record

Which Healthcare Professional?

There are a number of options available. These are listed below to help you decide before you ring us. The receptionist can also help you decide which one is the most appropriate for you. It may not always be necessary for you to see a GP and we welcome your co-operation in ensuring that people who, for medical reasons, must be seen by a doctor are able to do so.

Emergency nurse

This service is led by experienced, fully trained nurses who are able to deal with minor illness, injury and certain medical emergencies. You will be offered a same-day appointment where your condition will be assessed and treated by the emergency nurse, who has direct access to the duty doctor if she needs additional advice or support.

Telephone Consultation

Patients are able to speak to a GP on the telephone during the working day:

Where possible the doctors prefer patients to book a telephone consultation with the doctor they 'usually see'.

If you wish to speak to a nurse:

Patients who wish to speak with a nurse on the telephone will need to discuss this with the receptionist to see what could be arranged for the patient that day, depending on which nurse would be most able to assist the patient with their query/condition.

Practice nurse/Healthcare Assistant/Phlebotomist

In addition to general duties such as changing dressings our nurse-led clinics include blood-taking, blood pressure checks and cervical smears. In addition they can provide advice on the management of coronary heart disease, stopping smoking, diabetes, asthma, weight control and holiday and travel issues. Telephone consultations are available daily with the practice nurses.

GPs

More of the "routine" duties are now carried out by other members of the primary healthcare team, the doctors are able to concentrate on those patients who really need their expertise.

Appointment Data

Did you know?

The surgery makes one appointment every minute! 

Busy periods

Demand is at its highest on the telephone system between 8.30am-11am & 2pm-3pm.  Please bear with us during these busy periods, the staff will be with you as soon as they can.

Where possible, please try to avoid calling the surgery for non-urgent requests during these times.

If flexibility is important to you please register for our on-line appointment booking service.  For more information about this service, please click the 'on-line appointments' tab above.

Patients seeing the Doctor

During a normal working week the Doctors see approximately 750 routine patients (3250 per month).

This does not include the number of patients who are seen by the Duty Doctor for urgent 'same day' appointments, which usually equate to on average 70 patients per day!

During the month of April 2015, 5% of patient's DID NOT ATTEND their routine GP appointment.

This equates to 27 hours of lost time for other patients to see the Doctor.

On average, 7.9 appointments are wasted with the Nurse every week day! 

'Did Not Attend' Historic Data Collated:

March 2015

5.1% of patient's did not attend their routine GP appointment

= 27.6 hours of lost time for other patients to see the Doctor!

Did you know - appointments can be cancelled in the following ways:

By telephone or TEXT to 01225 860025 

OR

On-line via the practice website (to register for this service, please take proof of ID to the receptionist)

SICKNESS CERTIFICATES

You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. Your employer may however require you to complete a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website.

Evidence that you are sick

If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to give them some form of medical evidence to support payment of SSP (statutory sick pay).

Your employer can ask you to confirm that you've been ill.You can do this by filling in a form yourself when you return to work. This is called self-certification.

If you're sick and off work for more than seven days, your employer will probably ask for proof of your illness. Most employers ask for a fit note from your GP.

However, this will also depend on your employer's company policy on sick leave (or sickness absence). This policy should tell you how many days you can be off sick before you need to provide proof of illness or a fit note.

You could also provide evidence from someone who is not a medical practitioner, e.g. a dentist. Your employer will decide whether or not this evidence is acceptable. If your employer has any doubts, they may still ask for a medical certificate from your GP.

Statement of Fitness for Work - ’Fit Note'

The 'fit note' was introduced on 6 April 2010. With your employer's support, the note will help you return to work sooner by providing more information about the effects of your illness or injury.

For more information see the DirectGov website (where this information was sourced)

** COVID-19 Update**

These Online Appointments are temporarily unavailable due to resources being redirected.

We appreciate that for some patients this may be disappointing.

We would urge these patients to access our patient services either via Doctorlink, the NHS App, TPP Online or via our contact centre 01225 866611.

If deemed appropriate your GP may be able to offer you an online consultation.

Booking appointments on-line - click here

The Practice is pleased to announce that we now offer some on-line appointments for:

• Flu vaccination 2019: now open!
• GP telephone consultations: Telephone consultation between you and your Doctor (available to book from 12am the night before for that day only).
• Blood tests:   These are routine blood tests with our Health Care Assistants (not for under 16s!) and are only to be booked at the GPs request!
• Cervical Smear Tests:   These are for patients who have received a letter.

How do I register for an account?

If you would like to register to book appointments on-line please bring a form of ID to the surgery and one of the receptionists will be happy to issue you with your username and password.

PLEASE NOTE:

The appointments made available on-line are restricted to minimise booking errors. Due to the complexity of some appointments, we are not able to release all types of appointments. The reason for this, for example, is that the Nurses are trained to different levels and some may not be able to undertake the procedure you require. The Doctors have trained the appointments team to ask questions to identify the most appropriate clinician for your problem and will allocate the correct amount of time needed for that appointment.

If you cannot find the appointment you are looking for on-line, please contact the appointments team on 01225 866611 as they may have other options available to them not showing on-line.

On-line Help Brochure

If you are having difficulties with the on-line system, please CLICK HERE for a helpful step by step guide on how to book appointments and request prescriptions.

Problems/Troubleshooting

If you are encountering any problems with your online account or would like to provide any feedback please contact reception.

BRADFORD ON AVON & MELKSHAM HEALTH PARTNERSHIP
Doctorlink Pilot 

Home Visits

Home visits mean that the doctor can see far fewer patients during the day so we ask that you only request a home visit when medically essential.

Where possible please telephone to request a visit before 10.30 am.

Please telephone 01225 866611

You will be phoned back by a doctor to advise you and give an estimated time of your visit. You may be asked to attend the surgery or receive telephone advice for your condition. If a visit is deemed necessary, it may not be your usual Doctor who will call.

The Doctor is not obliged to visit you at home, unless you are unable to travel due to your condition.

Please, where possible attend surgery so that full examinations are possible.

Flu Vaccination - Register Today!

The FREE flu vaccination is available on the NHS to help protect adults and children at risk of flu and its complications.

To find out if you or a family member are eligible and for further information read our 'Flu Season 2020/21' updates found here

Please click on the image below to be added to our Practice flu vaccination register and we will contact you to book an appointment when the clinics are open.