Appointments

There are three ways to make an appointment:

1. Use GP Online Services (GPOS) – there are a number of GPOS providers to choose from, popular ones amongst our patients are the NHS App and Patient Access. More information about GPOS is available on the Online Services page of this website.
2. Over the phone – call 02476 315432 and press option 1. You can then choose to either speak to a Receptionist (option 1) or use our automated appointment management system (option 9) which allows you to book, check, change and cancel GP appointments using your phone’s keypad. More information about our phone system is available on the Phone System page of this website.
3. In person – appointments can be made at our Reception desk, although we respectfully request this is only used as a last resort.

There are three different types of appointment:

1. Phone appointments – these are not a replacement for face-to-face appointments but, for some patients, provide a convenient way to receive care. If you have been asked to book a phone appointment, please rest assured that if the clinician does not think this will provide the best possible outcome, you will have been offered a face-to-face appointment; if making an appointment yourself, you can also choose a face-to-face appointment if that is your preference. Phone appointments take place every weekday during both morning and afternoon surgery times. When booking a phone appointment, our GPs have asked the Reception staff to ask the reason for your appointment, to ensure a phone appointment is the most suitable. If not, the Receptionist will offer you a face-to-face appointment instead. If you have booked a phone appointment, please keep your phone on you, at all times – our clinicians will try to contact you a few times, but if they are unable to reach you, you may be asked to re-book your appointment.
2. Face-to-face appointments – these take place every weekday during both morning and afternoon surgery, at a set time.
3. Home visits – these can only be booked either over the phone by speaking to a Receptionist or in-person by the patient’s representative; home visits are only able to be booked on-the-day they are needed (unless you have an ongoing problem, that cannot be dealt with over the phone – whilst we will try to accommodate individual circumstances, we may be unable to visit on a specific day, not least because we would expect that patients requesting a home visit are housebound, therefore would be home all the time); more information about home visits is available on the Home Visits page of this website.

Extended Access Service

We know that not all patients are available during the daytime on weekdays. If an appointment in the evening or at the weekend would be more convenient for you, the Extended Access Service may be able to help. This service allows you to have an appointment during one of those times, although they do take place either over the phone or at one of a number of locations, none of which are Bedworth Health Centre. More information on this service is available on the Extended Access Service page of this website.

Our types of appointment are able to be booked:

1. In advance (also known as ‘pre-bookable’) – you can book these appointments: using GPOS up to six weeks in advance; over the phone using our automated appointment management system up to a fortnight in advance; and in-person or over the phone by speaking to a Receptionist, up to as far ahead as our appointment book allows (e.g. if our appointment book goes ahead by eight weeks, you can book eight weeks in advance)).
2. On-the-day – these are made available (also known as ‘released’) or ‘held’ until 8.30am on the day of the appointment, when they can be booked using GPOS, over the phone and in person; these are only for problems that will not wait until the next available pre-bookable appointment – they should not be used because the next available pre-bookable appointment is not as soon as you would like.
3. Urgently – these are made available at 8.30am on the day of the appointment; these can only be made over the phone by speaking to a Receptionist, or in person; these are not available whilst there are still on-the-day appointments left to be booked; these are only for problems that you might have attended A&E for, if you couldn’t get an on-the-day appointment. Please note: if the clinician you are booked this type of appointment with, deems that your problem will wait for the next available pre-bookable appointment, or an on-the-day appointment the next working day, you may be asked to re-book for that type of appointment. Given that patients wanting these appointments need to be seen urgently, we expect: a) patients to be available at any time for phone appointments – if there is no answer after multiple tries, we may take the position that there is not an ‘urgent’ need for this appointment; b) for urgent face-to-face appointments you will be given the first appointment after the time has passed that it will take you to get to the surgery – we expect this would not take multiple hours given the ‘urgent’ need for this appointment (if it would, we may take the position that there is not an ‘urgent’ need for this appointment).

Cancelling appointments

If you won’t be available on the date or at the time of your appointment, please cancel or re-arrange it to ensure as many appointments as possible are available for all patients.

You can cancel appointments:

1. Using GPOS
2. Via text (if you are signed up to our Text messaging service)
3. On this website here.
4. Over the phone either using our automated appointment management system or by speaking to a Receptionist
5. In person

Other Appointments information

• Appointments are allocated 10 minutes of time per appointment but clinicians will give you as long as you need.
• We operate a ‘one appointment, one problem’ system – Reception staff will happily book you a double appointment if you have more than one problem to discuss.
• For on-going problems, we recommend you see the same GP or member of the Nursing team to ensure continuity of care.
• As mentioned, phone appointments take place in the morning or afternoon – you can choose your preference when making your appointment. There is no set time for the appointment, it will simply take place between the start and end time of the clinicians morning or afternoon surgery (e.g. if you book a morning phone appointment, and the clinician you are booked with’s morning surgery runs between 8.30am and 11.30am, your call should take place during those times (on some occasions, the clinician may be running late so your call may take place outside of the expected times – we apologise in advance for this but ask that you be a ‘patient patient‘ given that our clinicians give all patients (including you) as long as they need)).
• For those patients waiting for an appointment they have booked ‘Urgently’, we request that you be prepared to wait as you will be part of a group of patients who have also stated they need to be seen urgently; if your urgent appointment is a face-to-face appointment, there is no set time for your appointment, we respectfully request that you sit and wait – you will have been asked to get to the surgery as soon as possible because your problem is urgent, therefore we will try and see you as soon as we possibly can.
• As our on-the-day appointments are for problems that will not wait until the next available pre-bookable appointment, and not on-going problems, you will be offered an appointment with the GP in least demand. Whilst you can request a specific GP we respectfully request that you only do this if you have had an exacerbation of an existing condition, that a specific GP has been dealing with, that requires urgent intervention that day.
• We respectfully request that patients with a new, non-urgent problem, book a pre-bookable appointment with their preferred GP rather than the ‘first available’. If you have no preferred GP, please disclose this to the Receptionist when making your appointment so you can be booked with the GP in least demand. Whilst we appreciate that this approach may mean you have to wait a little longer for your appointment, it helps those patients who need to see a specific GP (i.e. for an ongoing problem), to see that GP as soon as possible.
• Cases of repeated un-attendance of appointments, without informing the surgery, will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.