SWITCHBOARD OPTIONS

When you call us, you will be offered 6 options by the switchboard:






** call between 11am and 2pm Mon, Tue or Thur

Calling for Appointments

You may see any doctor working at any site, although we would encourage you to see one doctor for the duration of a problem.

Online Appointments

Please use the e-consult service - click on the 'Contact your GP online' link on the website home page to contact your GP. You will receive a response usually on the same day or by 6.30pm the following working day. You do not need to telephone the surgery if you submit an e-consult

Saturday Morning Appointments

There is a Saturday morning surgery at Hardwicke House (9.00 am - 12.00 pm). Appointments for these surgeries must be booked in advance and are open to all our patients irrespective of where they are normally seen. If you are unable to attend this appointment, please contact the surgery the day before.

This is NOT a walk-in or emergency surgery and you should contact the out-of-hours service should you need urgent medical advice.

Urgent Appointments

If an appointment is required urgently, you may telephone after 8.00am. Please do not call into the surgery expecting to be seen without telephoning first. If you do so you may be given an appointment later in the day and will therefore have to come back to the surgery.

You will be given an approximate time, but if someone is seriously ill or the doctor is called out, your appointment may be delayed.

GUIDANCE TO APPOINTMENT BOOKING

At 8.00am each day we are able to book on the day appointments, a number of appointments 2 days ahead and 7 days ahead and Saturdays a month ahead. We can have 2 to 4 clinicians working on Saturday, including Doctors, Paramedics and Nurse Practitioners. The phones are still busy at 8.00am as patients call first thing to get the best choice of appointments. Patients are advised that if they are in a queue of 55 or so, to not give up. There are a minimum of 10 Receptionists answering the phone, and most people are calling to make an appointment, so the calls are dealt with quickly. Please do not be tempted to call before 8.00am as the system is computerised and will not put you into the queue.

When patients ring up, they will initially be asked what the appointment is for. We ask this to enable us to navigate patients to the appropriate appointment for their needs. Sometimes that maybe Paramedic, Nurse Practitioner, Physio, Mental Health, Social Prescriber, Prescription Clerk etc.

The aim now is that we do not have to ask patients to call back to book an appointment. Once all available appointments have been booked, we can then default to the afternoon Duty Doctor sessions, these ideally are for things that cannot be left. The Duty Doctor will see up to 25 patients in this session. Once we have reached a critical level, when it is no longer safe to book more patients, patients will be directed to Colchester General Hospital Walk-in Centre based near the Colchester General Hospital in Colchester or to ring 111. No child, vulnerable patient, nor patient that needs immediate help will be turned away from the surgery.

We still have a problem with patients that DNA (do not attend) and this can be frustrating, especially at times when Doctors are on annual leave and we have less appointments available.

When booking for a particular Doctor for continuity, which is good practice, the patient may be advised that they need to call back on a different day to book these appointments. Doctors work varied days in the week, so the 2 day and 7 day may not be available on that particular day, so patients will choose that option to get the Doctor of their choice.

Receptionists aim will be to deal with each patient to reach a final conclusion.

Hardwicke House Surgery

Stour Street, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2AY
01787 370011

Meadow Lane Surgery

22 Meadow Lane, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2TD
01787 370011

Church Square Surgery

Church Square, Bures, Sudbury CO8 5BS
01787 370011

Stonehall Surgery

Nethergate Street, Clare, Sudbury CO10 8NP
01787 370011

The Cornard Surgery

67 Pot Kiln Road, Gt. Cornard, Sudbury CO10 0DH
01787 370011