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Welcome

Surgery Opening Times and Appointments

Surgery opening times

Monday-Friday 8.30 a.m - 6.30 p.m.

To improve our service to you, we would like patients to book appointments with the most appropriate person in the practice team. Please read the following information carefully to help you decide who is the most appropriate person for you to see or speak to.

By helping us this way it will allow doctors appointments to be available for those patients who really need to be seen. If your problem is something that the doctor may be able to deal with over the phone, please ask the receptionist for a telephone consultation and the relevant doctor will contact you when he or she is free

Our practice nurse team are skilled health care professionals and are increasingly taking over key areas of work previously done by the doctor. This is especially true with respect to Chronic Disease Management, where regular checks are essential to maximise future health. If at any time the nurses are concerned about an area of your care they will arrange review by the doctor.

The main areas of Chronic Disease Management are:

Coronary Heart Disease

High Blood Pressure

Asthma / COPD

Diabetes

Our nurses are also best placed for giving advice about general health issues, including: travel; contraception; diet and lifestyle. They are also responsible for taking cervical smears, HRT checks and general contraceptive advice. Again, if there are any areas of concern or specific details they will liase with one of the doctors.

Nurse appointments are appropriate for:
Childhood/Travel vaccinations
Contraceptive advice / HRT checks
Cevical smears
'Lifestyle' checks, including dietary advice
General Nursing Care - including dressings, suture removal, ear syringing, ECGs and urgent blood tests

If you have any queries regarding any of the following, please speak to the receptionist first. These problems can usually be solved without the need for an appointment.

Repeat prescriptions
Any queries relating to prescriptions
Investigation results/reports
Forms (DSS/DLA) / Medical reports

In an effort to respond to patients preferences for appointment times and accessibility, we are now trying to deal with some problems over the phone rather than face to face. So far it has proved very successful
When ringing for a doctors appointment the receptionsists will enquire whether the problem could be dealt with over the phoneand take a note of some details. Please have a contact number available.
If following this, the doctor feels an appointment is required this will be arranged.
Suitable areas would include:
Sicknotes - ongoing / post hospital review
Common infections, eg recent onset coughs/colds; diarrhoea; vomiting; cystitis
Explanation of investigations where needed
Advice on medication
Queries regarding an ongoing problem
Emergency Contraception

If you are uncertain you may talk to the doctor first.

All visit requests will usually be screened by telephone before being made. Please ring the surgery before 10.00 am if you feel a home visit is necessary.

Appointments to see the doctor are usually available within 48 hours, but we are now happy to allow approximately one half of all appointments to be bookable in advance. All other appointments will only be available 'on the day'

If you do book an appointment in advance please keep it or cancel it with enough notice for it to be offered to someone else

WIrral NHS Walk-in Centre
Arrowe Park Hospital and Victoria Central Hospital

NHS Walk-in Centres offer nurse-led services providing potentially fast and convenient access to advice, information and treatment.

Opening hours are:
7am to 10pm Monday to Friday
9am to 10pm Saturday/ Sunday

No appointments are necessary

They do not replace local GP or hospital services but complement them, offering an alternative option.

Think about using this service for any of the following:
Earache/ wax
Coughs and colds
Sprains and strains
Constipation
Mild diarrhoea and vomiting
Hay fever
Warts and verrucae
Minor eye complaints
Headaches
Insect bites
Herpes
Oral/vaginal thrush
Cystitis and water infections

By using this service for these types of problems, you will again be helping free up valuable doctors' time to deal with more complicated and serious cases.

Home visits may be requested ONLY for patients who are housebound or too ill to come to the surgery. They may not be requested for the sake of convenience or lack of transport. If you feel that a home visit is necessary please ring the surgery before 10.00 a.m., so that the doctors can plan their visits. Late requests for visits may have to be carried over until the next day. Please explain the exact nature of the problem to the receptionist to enable the doctor to see the most urgent cases first.
We have the necessary facilities for examination, investigation and treatment at the surgery and will be able to offer you a better service if you attend at the practice for all your needs. Also, please remember that the doctor will be able to see approximately five other patients at the surgery in the time it takes to do one home visit.
Bringing a child with a high temperature outdoors to come to the surgery will not harm the child. It may even do him or her some good and will help us to make a more accurate diagnosis.
Due to there not being enough hours in the day, we are not able to carry out every home visit that is requested and the doctors have to decide on the information given to them which visit requests can not be accomodated. The terminally ill and elderly housebound are usually given priority.

Even outside surgery hours the services of a doctor are available to you for medical emergencies. The partners share their out-of-hours commitments with the Wirral GPs Out-of-Hours Centre based at Arrowe Park Hospital. A doctor will deal with your problem, either with telephone advice, a consultation in the centre, or in extreme circumstances a home visit. Please therefore only call when the problem cannot wait for the next day surgery.
When necessary, call the normal telephone numbers and be prepared with pen and paper to take instructions from a recorded message. Please note, all calls made to the Out-of-Hours Centre are recorded.

If you occasionally find it difficult to get an appointment, it may be due to the fact that other people make appointments which they do not keep or cancel in good time. If you are unable to attend for an appointment you must notify us (or ask someone to do it for you) as soon as possible, so that the appointment may be offered to another patient.

The reception staff often have a very difficult job to do. They may not always be able to provide exactly what you want and the reason will usually be that they are simply following practice guidelines.

The receptionists are our representatives at the front desk. If you feel compelled to be abusive, threatening or violent towards them do not be surprised to find yourself removed from the list and facing prosecution.