Addingham Surgery

Appointments

The surgery is open from 8.00am to 6.00pm, Monday to Friday for appointments at Addingham Surgery.  We also offer appointments during the Enhanced Access Service as detailed below:

  • Monday to Friday – 18:30 to 20:00 – with a GP, Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP), Nurse, Physiotherapist & Pharmacist. These may be telephone or face to face appointments.
  • We also offer our Enhanced Access service on Saturdays 9am – 5pm.
  • As all the clinicians delivering the service work across all the PCN practices, you may not see a clinician from your own practice.

All Enhanced Access Service appointments are a mixture of pre-bookable and on the day bookings, Monday to Friday and pre-bookable only on a Saturday.  Appointments are only available for routine problems, not for ongoing issues. Appointments can be booked via our Reception Staff and are not available to book online. Tuesday evening Physiotherapy appointments at Springs Medical Centre are also available with our physiotherapist Gabriel Sido.

Why does the receptionist ask me what’s wrong?

It is not a case of the receptionists being nosey!  The reception staff are members of the practice team and it has been agreed they should ask patients ‘why they need to be seen’. Reception staff are trained in Care Navigation to ask certain questions in order to ensure that you receive the most appropriate medical care, from the most appropriate health professional at the most appropriate time.

Non urgent or routine appointments

For non urgent appointments or other routine matters, please phone after 10am. Most of our appointments are 10 minutes in length, so please be thoughtful of other patients waiting if you have several problems.

Routine appointments are available to book with Nurses and Health Care Assistants.

Types of Appointment

Face to Face Appointments

If you need a same day appointment, please phone first thing as most of our appointments for that day are available from 8:00am. Naturally, the phone lines will be busy, so please bear with us.  For non-urgent appointments or other routine matters, please telephone after 10.00am. Most of our appointments are 10 minutes in length so please be mindful of other patients waiting if you have several problems.

You can expect to be seen within 30 minutes of your appointment time.  If for any reason this is not possible, please speak to Reception and you will receive an explanation.

Home visits

If possible please try to telephone reception before 10:30am if you require a home visit.

A doctor may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability and remain at the doctors’ discretion.

Please remember that four or more patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the practice.

Requests for home visits after midday cause us particular problems as it involves a doctor having to leave a surgery full of patients waiting to do the visit. Please ring before midday or 10:30 ideally, but we do understand that you cannot plan being ill!

Telephone Appointments

Our practice also offers bookable telephone appointments daily with the GP or the practice nurse and you will be telephoned back later.  Please let Reception know if you prefer a telephone appointment and if you have any language problems.

Electronic consultation

Escape the wait, avoid shifting your day around and control your treatment. Use our eConsultation (electronic consultation) feature to get the advice you need when you need it. Once you submit an eConsult, you will get a response by the end of the next working day.  Follow this link to access the Patchs service.

Missed appointments

Unfortunately, many appointments are booked and the patient never shows up or is late and has missed the 10 minute appointment slot. This means there are fewer appointments for everyone else. We understand sometimes you may be running late or will, on occasion, forget.

Please ring and let us know if you are running late and the receptionist will advise if the doctor / nurse can fit you in.

We have a ‘Did not Attend’ policy, noting any missed appointments – if it is becoming a pattern then we will write to you advising you of the steps we may take. In extreme cases, the practice may decide to ask you to register with another surgery and remove you from our list. This is for the benefit of our other patients.

Date published: 8th March, 2023
Date last updated: 23rd February, 2024