Appointments

Consultations with doctors and nurse are booked by using appointment times. 

Urgent appointments

To request an urgent appointment for today or tomorrow (Monday to Friday) during opening times:

When you get in touch, we’ll ask what you need help with.

We will use your answers to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or healthcare professional to help you.

Routine appointments

To request a routine appointment in advance during opening times:

When you get in touch, we’ll ask what you need help with.

We will use your answers to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or healthcare professional to help you.

Get medical advice from a doctor or nurse

To ask a non-urgent medical question:

We will respond within 2 working days during opening times.

How the system works

This will explain how the practice works and why receptionists may ask you lots of questions.

How urgent things are dealt with

The doctors working day is divided into time for pre-booked appointments and time for urgent matters that need sorting out on the day. The main difficulty can be that the number of urgent problems that need to be dealt with varies a great deal from day to day so planning in advance is hard.

The next problem is in deciding what is “urgent”. Clearly, if it is urgent to you as a patient it is urgent, but what you don’t know is what other urgent things the doctors are dealing with and it’s the GPs professional decision to prioritise the urgent things to be dealt with in the order that they think is right.

This is why sometimes the receptionists will ask you for some idea of what is happening to you so that the doctors can prioritise the urgent work.

How routine things are dealt with

We have found that if people book appointments too far in advance more patients forget their appointments. This is why we only book 2 weeks in advance. As a practice we have very few missed appointments and most of these are generally due to unavoidable circumstances.

Many problems can be sorted out over the telephone. If you think your problem can be sorted out in this way you can leave your phone number and the doctor will phone you back. It is not possible to guarantee a specific time when the doctor will phone you back but you will be contacted that day for urgent queries or within 24 hours for non-urgent ones. Do please make sure that your mobile phone is switched on.

Choice of doctor

It is best for you to deal with the same doctor most of the time. However for urgent things you may not get a choice. This is because one doctor a day is given more time to deal with urgent matters and that doctor may be the only one to have the time to deal with your urgent problem.

Practice nurses

In a number of cases it might be worth considering an appointment with a practice nurse or our emergency care practitioner rather than a doctor. Our nurses are qualified to deal with many ailments and you may be seen more quickly.

Phone advice

If you feel that your problem can be dealt with over the phone rather than by attending the surgery please call and let the receptionist know.

They will ask for some information so the doctor can measure the urgency of your problem.

Your details will be passed to the on-call doctor who will call you back. These requests are usually dealt with within 24 hours however we are unable to specify who will call or a precise time.

Please note, depending on your condition, you may still be asked to come into the surgery.

Improved access and extended hours service

As part of the Forest of Dean Primary Care Network, we also offer weekday evening and weekend appointments at any one of the locality surgeries. These appointments are bookable on the normal practice phone service.

Please ask the reception team if you would prefer an appointment in the evening or at weekends.

Cancelling or changing an appointment

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else

To cancel your appointment:

If you need help when we are closed

If you need medical help now, use NHS 111 online or call 111.

NHS 111 online is for people aged 5 and over. Call 111 if you need help for a child under 5.

Call 999 in a medical or mental health emergency. This is when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.

If you need help with your appointment

Please tell us:

  • if there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to respond
  • if you would prefer to consult with the doctor or nurse by phone, face-to-face, by video call or by text or email
  • if you need an interpreter
  • if you have any other access or communication needs

Home visits

Home visits are only intended for patients who are too ill or frail to undertake a trip to the surgery. In order to obtain all of the relevant information, the receptionist will ask you about your illness and contact details.

Whenever possible a request for a home visit should be made before 11am. Most visits are carried out between morning and afternoon surgery.

One of the doctors may speak to you to before coming out. This helps them to medically prioritise their visits for the day.

Related information

Health A to Z

Sick notes

Test results