How to book an appointment and the options you have
Routine appointments
A face-to-face appointment can be booked by telephone or calling at the Brora surgery between the hours of 8.30am and 6pm Monday - Friday. Helmsdale surgery reception is manned between 9am - 5pm. You will speak to a receptionist who will try to book you into a GP of your choice within 2 working days, or if you prefer, any GP within 1 working day. Some points about appointments:
Appointments last for 15 minutes, and the doctor will try to deal with the problems you wish to discuss in that time.
If, however, you have a number of problems, it is sensible and safer for you and the doctor if you book an extended or double appointment, otherwise they will not be able to deal with all your issues at one visit and they will ask you to rebook a further appointment to discuss any remaining problems. This is fairer on other patients who are waiting after you.
Please try to be on time for your appointments. If you are more than 15 minutes late your appointment will be cancelled and you will have to rebook a new appointment.
Patients from Brora and Helmsdale are welcome to use appointments at either surgery if it is convenient for you.
Telephone appointments
These are an excellent way to discuss issues with the doctor if you need some simple health advice, have a query about your treatment or test results, or wish to decide if you need to see a doctor about a health problem. They will normally be conducted within a couple of hours of you calling the surgery in the morning so are an excellent way gain rapid advice from the comfort of your home; in some cases the GP may even be able to prescribe a treatment over the phone for you, saving you the need to come and wait at the surgery. You can book a telephone consultation by calling the receptionist and asking for a telephone appointment. She will give you a time when the doctor will call you back to discuss your issues. Please treat these appointments in the same manner as a face-to-face appointment and be waiting to receive the call.
Thursday Evening "extended hours" appointments
The practice now offers pre-bookable late appointments (between 6pm and 7pm) on a Thursday evening at Brora Medical Centre (see "why are these appointments only at Brora?" in FAQ). These are primarily for adult working patients who find it difficult to take time off work to attend routine appointments. We would appreciate if other patients would use the usual daytime appointments so that these are reserve for those who need them most. Please bear in mind, these appointments CANNOT be used for the following:
Blood tests - we have no way of getting samples to the laboratory in the evening
Smears - we have no nurse available in the evening.
The surgery is essentally closed at 6pm and no reception staff are on duty; there is no facility to book appointments at this time to other patients and the telephone is not answered. Pre-booked patients will be asked to wait in the waiting room until the doctor comes to collect them. Please note: these sessions ARE NOT for emergency or unscheduled patients turning up to request seeing a doctor. After 6pm all emergency requests are to be seen by the duty GP at the Lawson Memorial Hospital, who must be accessed by calling NHS24. If any patient attends requesting to see a GP in an emergency during one of these evening sessions, they will be instructed to either call NHS24 or an ambulance. There is NO exception to this rule.
Urgent appointments
Urgent appointments should only be requested for problems that you feel need to be seen the same day and cannot medically wait:
Please call the surgery as early as possible and say you are requesting an urgent appointment.
You will be asked to give the reason for this to the receptionist; she may need to ask the GP if this justifies an urgent appointment. If it is felt this could wait for a normal appointment, you will be instructed to make a regular appointment.
You will be asked to present yourself at the end of the routine surgery and wait until the GP can see you - specifc times are not given
If two GPs are on duty, you will be seen by whichever GP is free at the time - it is not possible to request an urgent appointment with a specific GP.
Please use the urgent appointments system fairly with regard to the needs of others. Problems which DO NOT count as an urgent appointment include:
Running out of repeat prescriptions
Wanting a sickness certificate
Minor illnesses that can clearly wait for a routine appointment; eg warts, trivial colds (try calling NHS24 for advice first).
Problems which are chronic (present for a few weeks) and are not worsening, eg headaches, back aches etc.
If you are in doubt, why not book a telephone consultation to discuss your problem? We may be able to sort it out without you needing to see a GP on the same day, or can give you simple advice to manage your problem and bring you to a routine appointment the next day.
Home Visits
These can be requested when a patient is physically incapable of coming to the surgery or being transported by family/friends/taxi.The UK is one of the few remaining countries in the world where doctors still do home visits. In the USA, home visits are unheard of, and few European countries still allow them. Research studies show that patients receive far better care if they are seen and examined in a surgery where proper medical lighting, examination equipment, testing facilities (Urine tests, heart traces etc) and couches are available, so where possible it is in your interests to be seen at the surgery when you can.You will normally wait longer to see the GP than you would by coming to the surgery for an urgent appointment (at least 2 hours in most cases).
To request a non-emergency home visit, please call the reception staff before 11am, stating exactly what the problem is and why you need a visit.
It may be better for an ambulance to be called immediately in some circumstances and the GP may instruct you to do this for patient safety.
If you feel a life threatening emergency may be occurring call 999 for an ambulance before calling the GP.
Minor injuries ( cuts/sprains/bites/falls): what to do?
Although we are not funded to provide a minor injuries service at the Practice ( this service is provided by the Primary Care Trust and is funded for this purpose at the Lawson Hospital, Golspie), the practice has decided to provide a GP led telephone triage assessment of minor injuries. This replaces our previous policy of directing patients automatically for treatment to the Lawson Hospital. If you feel the injury is serious or life threatening call 999 and then phone the practice-our GP's are all highly trained in emergency medicine (BASICS) and will attend immediately . If the injury is not life threatening, phone the practice first, tell the receptionist what the problem is and a GP will call you back. You may be asked to attend the surgery, or for more complex treatment ( such as stitching, X-rays, cleaning and dressing of wounds) to the Lawson Memorial Hospital Minor Injuries unit. Remember you can still attend the Lawson Hospital without phoning in advance as this is a 24 hour GP led minor injuries assessment unit-in some circumstances this may be quicker if your GP is, for example consulting, is on house visits or single handed that day. By providing this voluntary practice service we hope we can exceed the expectations of patients in our community, balancing this with the need to use the Lawson Hospital to protect it's viability as a minor injuries unit.
Travel health clinics:
These are conducted once per month at Brora and Helmsdale Surgeries. Please see here for details how to access the service.
