All patient contacts at Royal Primary Care are on an appointment only basis. We do not offer a walk-in service and we do not assess acute minor injuries. For more information on Urgent Treatment Centres click here.

Whilst our GPs and clinical team are trained to deal with a multitude of health concerns, they are not trained to treat dental or gum problems, and we are therefore unable to provide any form of dental care. For information on how to find a dentist including how to find an emergency dentist, click here

Our Same Day appointments are for patients who are unwell with new and worsening symptoms. Same Day appointments can only be booked by calling the surgery or visiting your local surgery's reception desk.

If you think you need a Same Day appointment, your request will be assessed by one of our call handlers or receptionists using an assessment tool built by our clinical team. If a Same Day appointment is required, you will be offered an appointment that day (for requests later in the afternoon, appointments will be offered for the following morning).

Other outcomes from our assessment tool may be:

• An appointment is required within 2 weeks
• A referral or signposting to another service such as a local pharmacy, physiotherapy or other appropriate services
  

Our 14 Day Pre-Bookable appointments are suitable for patients who have ongoing symptoms or lifelong illness and don't require a Same Day appointment.

Our call handling team have been trained to direct you to the most appropriate clinic and clinician for your problem, ensuring that where necessary you get to see the same clinician for ongoing episodes of care. For ongoing or lifelong illness, being able to see the same clinician can significantly reduce; unnecessary visits to the surgery and hospitals, unnecessary medications and investigations and improve health outcomes.  

To book a pre-bookable appointment you can:

• Use Online Services, such as Airmid, SystmOnline or the NHS App. These are appointments that are reserved specifically for our patients with online access and cannot be booked through our reception tea
• Visit your local surgery to speak to one of our receptionists
• Phone the surgery. When calling the surgery for a pre-bookable appointment, you will be added to our call back waiting list where one of our call handlers will contact you within 24 hours to discuss arranging an appropriate appointment or referral. By using this system, we will be able to helppatients who need a Same Day appointment more efficiently and ease the telephone pressures at our busiest times. 

Our Mental Health Practitioners offer services for the purpose of improving your Mental Health and helping to treat Mental Health Disorders.

Any of our patients can book in to see a Mental Health Practitioner, no referrals are required

14 Day Pre-Bookable Appointments

These appointments are routine appointments and are available to pre-book 14 days in advance. It is your choice whether you wish to have this appointment as a face to face appointment or a telephone consultation.

To book a routine appointment with one of our Specialist Mental Health Practitioners you can:

• Visit your local surgery to speak to one of our receptionists
• Phone the surgery. When calling the surgery for a pre-bookable appointment, you will be added to our call back waiting list where one of our call handlers will contact you within 24 hours to discuss arranging an appropriate appointment or referral. By using this system, we will be able to helppatients who need a Same Day appointment more efficiently and ease the telephone pressures at our busiest times. 

If you feel you need help with your Mental Health outside of our opening hours, you can contact the 24 Hour Mental Health Support Line on 0800 0280077

Our nursing team are highly trained Nurses and Health Care Assistants who look after all aspects of chronic disease management, cervical screening, HRT, menopause and sexual health advice, vaccinations and injections as well as undertaking blood samples and blood pressure checks, lung function tests, 24 hr BP monitoring and Cardiovascular Risk Screening and advice / Health MOT.

84 Day Pre-Bookable Appointments

These appointments are routine appointments with our Nursing team and are available to pre-book up to 84 days in advance. All appointments with our nursing team are face to face, unless explicated stated otherwise.

To book a routine appointment with one of our Nursing Team you can:

• Use Online Services, such as Airmid, SystmOnline or the NHS App. Smear tests, Diabetic foot checks and Flu vaccine appointments can be booked via online services, but for any other Nursing appointment you will need to use one of the other booking methods.
• Visit your local surgery to speak to one of our receptionists
• Phone the surgery. When calling the surgery to book a nursing appointment, you will be added to our call back waiting list where one of our call handlers will contact you within 24 hours to discuss arranging an appropriate appointment or referral. By using this system, we will be able to helppatients who need a Same Day appointment more efficiently and ease the telephone pressures at our busiest times. 

A GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires a visit. A GP can also decide how urgently a visit is needed. You cannot insist that a GP visits you at home. All of our visit requests will be triaged by our duty clinician and dealt with according to clinical need. 

Home Visits are reserved for the following groups of patients:

• The terminally ill
• The genuinely housebound
• Patients who are severely ill in bed

Requesting a Home Visit

Wherever Possible, try and come into the surgery as facilities here are far better for examination and treatment.

Requests for visits must be made by 10:30. Please only request home visits if you are incapable of attending the surgery.

Our call handling team are trained to enquire about the nature of your visit request to help the clinicians to determine the urgency of the call. We would really encourage you to describe the symptoms when asked as this will ensure your problem is dealt with by the most appropriate clinician at the right time suitable for your issue.

The doctor may telephone prior to, or instead of, visiting.  In some situations the Doctor may arrange assessment by another member of the Primary Care team (Advanced Nurse Practitioner/District Nurse/Community Matron)

Visits requested later in the day that are for the genuinely housebound, but are not urgent, will not be seen that day.  Ring early if you wish for a routine call if you are housebound.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. So please help us to help you and our other patients by visiting the surgery whenever possible.

The following ARE NOT valid reasons to perform a home visit:

Transport issues for the patient

It is not the GP practices’ responsibility to arrange transport, or to perform home visits because the patient has difficulty arranging transport. In these circumstances patients should seek transport help from relatives, friends, or taxi firms.

Childcare issues for a patient

If a patient has difficulty arranging for someone to care for their children whilst attending appointments, the patients are welcome to bring their children to the surgery. 

Poor mobility

Whilst it is understood that having poor mobility is inconvenient and unpleasant, GP surgeries are designed to cater for patients with restricted mobility. If patients are able to attend any other appointments (hairdresser, dentist, lunch out), then they must be expected to attend appointments in GP surgeries.

An unwell child

Sick children will always be seen as soon as possible if brought into the surgery; it is not appropriate to wait for a visit. We rarely visit children at home as a responsible adult should be available to bring them to the surgery.

If a parent believes that the child is too unwell to travel to surgery, and is a medical emergency then it would be advisable for them to seek help from the emergency services by calling 999.

Residents of Care Homes

Care home residents are no different to patients in their own homes. The need to visit should be based upon clinical need, not the availability of transport or staff to attend the surgery. It is the responsibility of care facilities to make transport available for residents so that they can get to medical and non-medical appointments. Routine visit requests for care homes can be requested however will be deferred until appropriate clinical resource available. 

Resident outside the Practice boundary

The Patient Choice Scheme will allow GP practices to register new patients who live outside the practice area, without any obligation to provide home visits or out of hours services when the patient is unable to attend their registered practice.

Requests made by another Health Care Professional.

Visit requests made by other health care professionals from other services for patients who are not housebound will not be undertaken.

All registered patients have the right to express a preference to receive services from a particular Doctor, either generally or in relation to any particular condition; such preferences will be recorded by the Practice.

The Practice will endeavor to comply with any reasonable preference, but need not do so if the preferred performer has reasonable grounds for refusing to provide services to the patient or if the performer does not routinely perform the services in question within the Practice.