Since June 2022 the Practice has been offering more face to face appointments.

As the covid pandemic restrictions have gradually eased, patients & clinicians have highlighted more medical problems which need a face-to-face (F2F) review – phone assessment alone is not enough.

Following discussion with the practice team in our staff forum and taking on board inputs from NHS commissioners and patients, our F2F appointments in the afternoon have been further increased and bookable phone appointments have been reduced accordingly.

Some patients still prefer a ‘booked phone appointment’ or an ‘online consultation’ for
non-urgent and follow-up queries and these will continue.

Discussions are under way as to whether the Walk and Wait Clinic is to be re-introduced. Please do not walk into the practice between 8 and 10am. The clinicians are on the phones so you won’t be seen. Instead, please phone 020 8670 6878 between 8 and 10 am for urgent advice.

Appointment System

• Telephone Advice Line (TAL) : 8am – 10am every weekday (doctors)

The above Telephone Advice Line (TAL) is for same day advice – calls are placed in a queue as they are received so there will be a wait on the phone.  Mondays are very busy for TAL. The phone number is 020 8670 6878 between 08:00 and 10:00

• Online consultations: submitted via our website 8 am – 12 noon every weekday. For follow-up queries only – NOT anything urgent.
• Face-to-face consultations with a doctor or Physician Associate are available in the afternoons only. These can be booked online or by phoning the reception team on 020 8670 6878.
• For patients who prefer a booked phone appointment, in the afternoon, the reception team can book this. These are not bookable online.

The above online and face-to-face consultations are NOT for urgent same day advice – please use TAL, MAL or duty nurse advice line instead 8am – 10 am on 020 8670 6878.

Patients Running Late for an Appointment

Our clinicians make every effort to run as close to booked appointment times as possible.  In return we ask patients to be on time for their appointments to ensure the smooth running of our clinics for both staff and patients.

Late for a booked face-to-face appointment

If you are late the following will apply:

• Up to 10 minutes late – you will be seen, but may have to wait quite some time if the clinician has already called in the next patient.
• 10-20 minutes late – the receptionist will speak to the clinician to see if you can be seen within the same clinic session. You could be seen at the end of the clinic so there could be a long wait.  If this is not possible, you will be asked to re-book your appointment.
• More than 20 minutes late – the receptionist will ask you to re-book your appointment.

 Missed a booked telephone appointment

If the clinician has failed to reach you after two attempts, a message will normally be left asking you to re-book your appointment

Medication requests

These can be submitted online on our website.

Home visits

If you are housebound and need to see a doctor, please call the Telephone Advice Line on 020 8670 6878, between 08:00 and 10:00 and select the option to speak to a doctor. If it is after 10:00, please talk to our receptionists on the same number.

Nurse appointments

• Treatment room appointments, e.g. for dressings and injections
• Monitoring and treatment of long term conditions (diabetes, asthma, blood pressure etc)

These are bookable through our reception team 020 8670 6878.

Please visit the Clinics & Services page for advice on what clinics can be booked with our practice nurses.

Thank You – The Staff Team, Paxton Green Health Centre