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. Home visits in a practice that serves a large rural area means a doctor can spend up to 2 hours travelling to see a patient at home, which means that this impacts on the care other patients receive - usually a home visit takes up the time that the GP may be able to see 3-4 other patients.
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 occurringcall 999 for an ambulance before calling the GP.
GPs cannot leave the practice in the middle of a surgery to attend patients at home immediately: if you feel the problem is so urgent it cannot wait for up to 4 hours to be seen in a home visit after surgery, you will be requested to call an ambulance.
Accidents and Emergencies: what to do?
Brora and Helmsdale medical practice is NOT an accident and emergency centre: we do not hold a contract to provide minor injury or emergency services from NHS Highland and therefore are not insured for this purpose.If you have an serious accident or a life threatening emergency you should NOT arrive at the surgery expecting immediate treatment: the correct procedure is to call 999 for an ambulance. The reason for this is GPs may not be present at the surgery or have the equipment or specialist skills to deal with your problem, and a delay in getting an ambulance may result in a danger to the patient.
If you have a minor injury (eg fall, burn, suspected broken wrist, ankle injury, laceration, fishook, foreign object in eye etc) that is less than 48 hours old you should proceed to your nearest A&E department (which is Lawson Memorial Hospital at Golspie). THIS IS THE CORRECT PROCEDURE FOR ALL ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES. You do NOT need to see your GP first for a referral - you can attend straight away without an appointment, and the A&E is manned 24/7 by clinical staff trained to assess you. If you present to the surgery with a minor injury expecting to be seen immediately and it is safe for you to do so, you will be instructed to go direct to Lawson Memorial Hospital for proper assessment. If your injury is greater than 48 hours old you will need to make an appointment to see a GP first
Travel health clinics:
These are conducted once per month at Brora and Helmsdale Surgeries. Please see here for details how to access the service.
