Appointments are normally available from Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 5.30pm. A limited number of appointments are available outside these hours for patients who are unable to attend during normal weekday hours. If you need an evening or weekend appointment, please tell the receptionist.
To make an appointment, please ring
01325 380640 between 8.0am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday.
For
a routine (non-urgent) appointment, we aim to provide appointments on
the day you telephone or the next working day. Normally, you will be able to choose which doctor you see. However, if your preferred doctor
is unavailable, you will be offered an appointment with one of the
other doctors. Some appointments are available for
advance booking up to four weeks ahead.
If you have an urgent medical problem, you should inform the Receptionist. You will be be put through to a GP or Emergency Care Practitioner who will discuss your problem and decide the best course of action. If the GP or ECP decide that you need to attend the surgery, they will book you an appointment later that day. Please note that 'urgent' appointment slots are for five minutes only, and so the doctor/ECP will only be able to discuss the immediate problem.
Online appointment booking via EMISAccess
We now provide a facility for booking doctors' appointments online, through our Practice IT system provider EMIS. In order to use the facility, you need to obtain a PIN number and personal ID number from the Practice. For security reasons, we ask patients to call at the surgery in person in order to obtain these. No prior appointment is necessary and the process of issuing them only takes a few minutes.
Please note that only pre-bookable appointmeents are available online and so this facility is best suited to those wishing to book non-urgent appointments. Please note also that, at present, nurses' appointments are not available online. EMISAccess can also be used to order repeat prescriptions.
More information about EMISAccess
Telephone
consultations
The doctors are happy to discuss on the telephone any problems you may
have. This may be a more convenient way for you to ask for medical
information or advice when an examination is not required. The times
they are available vary - if you wish to speak to a doctor, please ring
Reception, who will suggest a suitable time for you to ring, or will
arrange for the doctor to ring you back.
Appointments for clinics/health checks, etc
Some appointment times are reserved for clinics,
health checks, medical examinations and injections. As these
appointments are limited, you should enquire well in advance. The
Receptionist will advise you of the next available appointment.
Cancelling your appointment
If you can not keep your appointment, or wish to
cancel, please let us know as soon as possible, so that we can allocate
the appointment to someone else.
Out-of-hours
If you need to call out the doctor during the
evening, night or at weekends, you should phone the out-of-hours
service provided by the Darlington Primary Care Trust on
0845 603 3131.
If you cannot remember this number or do not have it to hand, you can
ring the usual surgery number 01325 380640; you will then receive a
recorded message that gives you the out-of-hours number.
When you ring the out-of-hours service, you will be referred to a
doctor or other healthcare professional who may either give you advice
over the telephone, ask you to attend the primary care medical centre
in Darlington, or arrange a home visit. Please note that the doctor
will not be one of the doctors from this Practice.
If you need medical advice outside surgery hours, but do not
necessarily need to see a doctor, please ring NHS Direct (see below).
Home visits
If you are unable to attend the surgery due to
incapacity because of illness or injury, you can request a home visit.
Please note this facility is only for patients who are too ill or
infirm to visit the surgery. As there are good disabled parking
facilities and we can provide wheelchairs on request, we would prefer
patients to visit the Practice if at all possible so that they have
access to all our facilities. In some cases, the doctor may telephone
you to get further information before deciding whether a visit is
necessary.
If you feel that you need a home visit, please contact the surgery on
01325 380640 between 8.30am and 10.30am. Emergency requests can be made
at any time during normal surgery hours.
NHS Direct
As an alternative to calling the out-of-hours service, NHS Direct is a 24 hour,
confidential helpline - 0845 4647 - staffed by trained health information advisers and qualified nurses. It offers
information and advice on:
- What to do if you're feeling ill
- Health concerns for you or your family
- Local health and social care services
- Self help and support organisations
The times of individual doctors' surgeries vary and so not all doctors
will necessarily be available at all times. The Receptionist can,
however, advise you as to when your own doctor will be available.
