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Booking an appointment at the surgery –

When you telephone the surgery to book an appointment you will be connected to one of our Care Navigators. They will ask you for a brief description of your problem in order for them to direct you to the most appropriate person to deal with this. We will outline briefly where you may be directed to. 

• You will always be asked, by the call handler, for a reason for your appointment request.

• If you do not wish to disclose the reason for your appointment you will be offered the first available routine appointment. 

• We have a multi-disciplinary team and you may be offered an appointment with any one of our specialist team depending on the reason for the appointment. 

• 15 minute appointments are allocated for all clinicians. 

• Appointments available to book are either face-to-face or telephone consultations.

• We offer appointments in Newton Stewart, Wigtown and Kirkcowan (on certain days).

• If you wish to see a specific clinician or go to a specific location you may need to wait longer for your appointment. 

• If you are late for your appointment it will be rescheduled. 

• If you cannot attend your appointment you must cancel this as soon as possible. Failure to cancel a pre-booked appointment may result in you being removed from our practice list.  

Signposting:-

The nursing and reception staff have been trained to be able to signpost to alternative, available professionals.  When you give an idea of your problem they can quickly identify the correct person for you to see.  These include:-

• Doctor

• Advanced Nurse Practitioner

• Practice Nurse

• CTaC (Healthcare Support Workers)

• Clinical Pharmacist (in the practice)

• Pharmacy first  (your local chemist shop, deals with all minor ailments )

• Paramedic - Immediate Care (Home Visiting)

• First Contact Physiotherapist

• District Nursing staff

• Health Visitor

• Midwife

• Dentist

• Optician

• Sexual health clinic

• Social work

• Physiotherapy through the MSK Helpline – 0800 917 9390

• Podiatry self referral – 01387 220031

• If you are awaiting a hospital appointment or information on referral - DGRI – 0345 602 2812 

 

We very much hope that this system will make best use of the services available both at the practice and in the wider community and by doing so indirectly increase the number of available GP appointments so that you can more easily secure this when it is necessary.

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