Appointments

Doctors

At present appointments with the doctor are initially a telephone consultation.

The doctor will then arrange a face to face consultation if it is needed.

We have a small number of face to face appointments each day, which can be pre-booked directly. These are intended for those patients who are unable to use the telephone (e.g. those who are deaf)

Urgent appointments

You must ring the surgery (01204 521574) at 8am if you have an urgent problem, which cannot wait. You must be available to speak to the doctor on the telephone and also to attend the surgery, should this be needed, after speaking to the doctor, at any time during that day. You will need to prioritise your urgent appointment over other events including convenience, work or other committments.
The doctors are supported by paramedics, to treat urgent problems.

We are unable to offer a choice of clinician, for urgent appointments.

You must provide the receptionist with information regarding the nature of the problem, to allow the doctor to deal with the problem properly.

Non-Urgent appointments

Other appointments can be booked online: Register for access to book appointments online or over the phone (01204 521574). When ringing regarding other appointments, we ask that you ring after 10am.

For certain conditions and administrative queries, e.g. prescription requests, sicknotes, letter requests, you can contact the surgery using an online form: link to contact the surgery using an online form. We endeavour to respond to these requests within 2 working days; these are not for urgent queries.

You may choose to wait for an appointment with the doctor or your choice, or, if you have no preference, you may chose the next available doctor.

We also have appointments with a practice pharmacist, musculoskeletal practitioner, mental health practitioner and paramedics, who are provided to the surgery by the NHS to offer additional more specialist appointments.

Other services

Our receptionists may direct you to a different service, which is better able to help with your query. The NHS is providing these services, so that the doctors' appointments go to those who most need them.

These include: the emergency dentist, for dental problems; primary care eye care services, for eye problems; the community pharmacy scheme, for minor ailments; NHS 111, for general NHS queries.

Practice Nurse

We have three nurses, with appointments available every day.
Our nurses and doctors are supported by our healthcare assistants.

Annual Chronic Disease reviews

For patients who have ongoing health problems (including diabetes, asthma, COPD, heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol, dementia and certain mental health problems, learning disabilities)  an annual review is needed.

This normally includes an initial appointment, for a blood test, blood pressure check etc.
This will be followed by an appointment with our practice nurse and a review of your medication (with the help of our pharmacist).

Please book your review based on your birth month, as follows:

Extended Access Surgery

Extended access is now provided in the evenings and on Saturdays.

This includes, doctor, nurse and blood test appointments, This is operated from Tonge fold Health Centre, our surgery building.

Appointments for this service can be booked through the surgery reception.

What to do when the surgery is closed

Between 18:30 (6:30pm) and 08:00 (8am) on weekdays and from 18:30 (6:30pm) on Fridays to 08:00 (8am) on Mondays, the surgery is closed.

If you need medical attention during these times you can:

1. for general advice or to be put throught to the best service, call NHS 111: 111

2. for a doctor, call the out of hours GP: 0161 763 8940

3. For a genuine emergency, call 999 or attend A&E

Cancellations

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.

Home Visits

Home visits are only made for patients who are medically unable to travel to the health centre, or completely housebound.

We are not able to make home visits for reasons of convenience, patient preference or lack of transport.

We will ask for details of the patient's condition so that the visit can be prioritised.

All patients requesting a visit will be contacted by the clinician before a visit will be offered.

It is helpful if the request can be made before 10:30.

Sickness Certificates

The NHS does not provide sick notes for illnesses of less than seven days. If you need a sick note and you have been ill for less than 7 days you should complete your own note called a SC2. This is available from benefits offices, or your employer or can be dowloaded on the link here.

If your employer insists on a sick note when you are ill for less than 7 days then this would be a private service, for which a charge will be made.

Click here to download SC2

All requests for a first Fit note (formerly sick note) about a condition must be discussed with the doctor. Subsequent requests may need an appointment to review your condition withthe GP.

Fit notes can be requested:

• using an online form
• by ringing reception

Flu and Covid-19 vaccines

Flu Vaccines are available to patients in certain groups:

information about the flu jab

Eligible patients will be invited to our flu clinics.

Covid Vaccines are available to patients in certain groups:

information about the covid vaccine

At present, these are not available in the surgery (we hope to offer these from the next booster programme).

For information on where to book Covid vaccines, please see here:

booking a covid vaccine