Dear Patients
Seasons Greetings – wishing you a happy and healthy Christmas.
We are now just over a year since we started the new online system to request doctor appointments. We hope you have found the change acceptable and that you are experiencing some of the benefits. It has enabled us to help more patients each day and, importantly, identify those patients who are most unwell and need urgent review.
We now have much better access to appointments and advice than the average NHS GP Surgery.
We need your help to keep it that way please. We are having ever increasing numbers of contacts through the online portal. On average 100 patients contact us a day now. This is not including 200 others who access us via telephone, email, and the NHS app. We see 300 patients every day at the surgery.
There are 2 ways you can help:
- Please only use the online portal for urgent and routine doctor appointments. Booking annual reviews/ medication reviews/ smears/ immunisations/ nurse appointments etc should all be done by calling the surgery. Requesting medication and checking blood/ scan results should be via the NHS app. Chasing referrals should be conducted by yourself please – calling the secretary of the speciality/ service.
- Please be mindful of self-care and alternative access to medical help. The ease of accessing the online portal has resulted in patients having a lower threshold to contact us before they have attempted other options:
- Pharmacy First – did you know a pharmacist can assess and treat (including antibiotics, if needed) many minor illness problems – including sore throats, coughs and colds, urine infections, eye infections, and skin conditions to name a few. Please attend a pharmacy before contacting us, if possible.
- NHS website – https://www.nhs.uk/. Lots of information/ symptom checker/ self-care advice.
- 0-18 website – https://www.what0-18.nhs.uk/. A very useful resource for childhood conditions.
- Talking Therapies website – https://www.awp.nhs.uk/our-services/talking-therapies/talking-therapies-banes. Advice for mental health problems and self-referral for counselling.
- Hope House website – https://hopehousesurgery.nhs.uk/services/referrals/. A list of services you can self-refer to.
- For test results of a test carried out at the RUH https://www.ruh.nhs.uk/patients/your_care_outpatient/waiting_for_tests.asp
- For a fit note (‘sick note’) following treatment at the RUH https://www.ruh.nhs.uk/patients/fit_notes/index.asp
Thank you very much for your support – it will enable us to continue helping all those who need us most.
Best wishes.
Hope House Surgery.