To get the best out of our appointment system:

• Telephone the Practice or go to our Website and click on the “On-line Access Tool”

• Provide our team with as much information about your medical problem as you can as this will help the receptionist identify the best person or service that can help you as quickly and safely as possible.

• Contact us as early in the day as possible preferably between the hours of 08:00 and 11:00.

• If you prefer to see a regular member of our team please let our receptionists know

• If you are forward booking an appointment please state whether you would prefer a telephone call or a face to face appointment.

• To avoid delays for you, wherever possible avoid contacting us on Mondays and Tuesdays as they are our busiest days

• Inform the receptionist if you would like a text message to remind you about your appointment time and date

• Please keep your phone with you at all times if expecting a call from the Practice and ensure your phone accepts withheld numbers. The Practice could contact you on a Worksop or Doncaster number.

We also has some appointments which can be booked online through the NHS App. These appointments will be available from 18:30 – 20:00 on weekdays, and 09:00 – 17:00 on Saturday. You can easily book them using the NHS App, or any other NHS-linked app you use to manage your healthcare.

The following appointments will be available to book online:

• GP appointments

• B12 injections

• cervical screening

• Learning disability reviews

• Mental health reviews

• Pre-school boosters for children over 3 years and 4 months

• NHS Health checks

These appointments will be released throughout the week so keep checking your app.

We do ask that you provide as much information as possible when booking the appointment to ensure that you are booked in with the most appropriate clinician. We do review these appointments, and we may contact you to rebook.

Please ensure that your medical record is up to date with your mobile number, as you will receive a text message reminder, along with a link for you to cancel the appointment if you can no longer attend the appointment.

Our reception team have received training from the doctors and other members of the clinical team to support them to offer the best type of appointment available. This includes who they book an appointment with eg Community Pharmacist, Paramedic, Musculo-skeletal practitioner, etc and they have guidance on whether a same day appointment for an acute problem is required or whether it can wait a short while and be booked into a routine appointment. The reception team follow a protocol to make such decisions and are able to seek advice if needed.

• Paramedics from chest infections, and injuries, to more serious conditions such as asthma attacks and heart attacks, as well as long-lasting conditions such as arthritis and diabetes. You may be directed or receive a routine or urgent appointment, telephone consultations or home visit from one of our Paramedics who are very capable of diagnosing, prescribing, referring to specialists, ordering tests and interpreting results and admitting to hospital when necessary.

• Nurse Practitioners are highly trained and experienced specialist nurses and like Paramedics can assess, examine, treat, and manage patients of all age ranges with a variety of illnesses and diagnose, prescribe, refer to specialists, order tests and interpret results. Their main areas of expertise are minor illnesses and long term conditions.

• Musculoskeletal (MSK) Practitioners are experts regarding muscles and bones. Our MSK Practitioners provide patients with expert diagnosis and treatment which can prevent the need for referral to hospital. By having them in our Practice, care can be put in place at the earliest possible opportunity to prevent conditions deteriorating. You may receive an appointment with our MSK Practitioners if you have a sprain, sports injury, pain from arthritis, problems with tendons, ligaments or bones, back or neck problems including pins and needles. Our MSK Practitioners will initially contact you on the phone and then may book you for further sessions

• Mental Health Practitioners are skilled professionals in mental health. They have much longer appointments to enable them to spend time with each patient to help discuss and address their needs, sometimes referring on to other specialists where appropriate. The Mental Health Practitioner will initially contact you by phone before deciding on the next steps

• Clinical Pharmacists are experts in medicines and are based in our Practice. These are not to be confused with Community Pharmacists who are based in pharmacies. Our Clinical Pharmacists can discuss the medicines you are taking to make sure they are working for you, including whether you are experiencing any side effects. If you are taking several different medicines, they can also help make sure they are all working well together. The Clinical Pharmacists also undertake annual medication reviews for patients and can discuss how they are working for you and arrange for any tests and BP monitoring which may be needed. If your medicines have been changed after a stay in hospital, the clinical pharmacist can help explain these changes and ensure you get the maximum benefit from these medicines. The GP may direct you to one of our Clinical Pharmacists who can prescribe medicines to treat your condition.

• Social Prescribing Link Workers help patients to improve their health and wellbeing by connecting them to community groups and services for practical and emotional support. GPs may ask our Social Prescribers to contact patients when they feel lonely or isolated or have worries about money or housing for example. The Social Prescriber will listen carefully to what’s affecting the patient’s health and will connect those patients with local community and voluntary groups offering a range of activities and services such as walking groups, art classes, gardening clubs, exercise groups or may coordinate social services input or Citizens Advice input for example.

We cannot guarantee that you will still be seen if you are late for your appointment. Our clinicians are exceptionally busy, and generally have a full day of appointments. If you are late and the clinician saw you, this would create a delay for the next patient, and the patient after etc, so please make every effort to arrive on time for your appointment.

We are currently offering Cholera, Hepatitis A, Poliomyelitis (Polio) and Typhoid. We do not provide paid-for vaccinations at this stage, e.g. Japanese Encephalitis. Patients can request this service from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals' Travel Vaccination Clinic. Some pharmacies in the area may also offer this service, though you will need to contact them directly.

If you are travelling in England and Wales, we can send your prescription to a pharmacy close to where you are staying. This is called a one-off nomination - just let us know the postcode of where you are staying and we can locate a nearby pharmacy. Alternatively, let us know if you have a specific pharmacy you would like to use.

If you are travelling abroad, we can issue extra for the duration of your trip. Please mention this when you request your next lot of medication.

You can request a sick note either through our Online Access Tool or by calling us on 01909 500 233. A GP may wish to speak with you before issuing one, and we will let you know this when you make the request.

If a GP agrees to write a sick note, this can take up to five working days. They can be backdated, so your employer will accept them retrospectively. We cannot prioritise your request so that you get it sooner.

Pharmacists are experts in medicines. They are responsible for safely dispensing your prescribed medication and can supply pharmacy-only medications where appropriate. They can, in some cases, provide an emergency supply of your prescribed medication when your GP surgery is closed.

Pharmacists can advise on a number of minor illnesses, including:

• aches and pains

• sore throat

• coughs

• colds

• flu

• earache

• cystitis

• skin rashes

• teething

• red eye

There are sometimes shortages of certain medications either at a local or national level. These shortages are usually temporary and are resolved quite quickly, however if you aren't able to get your regular medication our in-house Pharmacy team can suggest alternatives. Please call us on 01909 500 233 and let us know the medication you cannot get.

Your test results will be available in the NHS App once a clinician has reviewed them. If you do not have access to the NHS App, you can call the surgery, preferably after 11:00, and ask the reception team. Test results can take up to a week to come back from the lab.