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Getting the best out of the practice
How our appointment system works:
The majority of our GP appointments are booked in advanced, however we have a triage system for urgent on-the-day queries. Nursing team appointments, musculoskeletal appointments and appointments with our mental health practitioner can be pre-booked. Some of our appointments are available to book on our new automated booking system.
Ideally we would urge you to make your requests through the Online Access Tool (OAT) found on our website www.larwoodhealthpartnership.co.uk
OAT allows you to:
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Request an appointment to see a clinician
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Order medication
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Request a Fit note
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Ask general queries
We have a dedicated team that deal with your requests between 8 – 5 pm Monday to Friday (except bank holidays)
All information you send on any online platform is automatically saved to your medical record so only send information relevant to yourself. One patient - one request. When sending photographs please ensure that these are not of intimate areas (the admin team will not save any photographs of an intimate nature to your records).
You can also phone your local surgery, but please be aware that our phone lines can be extremely busy and you may have to wait in a queue to be answered. There is never a queue online.
Larwood Health Partnership receive a high number of contacts every day so to ensure that we are able to safely deal with clinically urgent issues, we have to limit the number of routine queries after a certain time. In this instance you will either receive a message asking you to contact us on another day or an admin team member will ask you if your request is clinically urgent. If you feel your query cannot wait we will add you to a clinicians list, in some circumstances the clinicians may triage your query and if not deemed clinically urgent ask the admin team to contact you to rebook on another day.
Reception Team
This helpful infographic explains why our reception team ask certain questions when you contact the practice. .
Repeat Medication
When you are ordering your repeat medication, please only order what you need and do not stockpile, as your medication may change and this will waste NHS funds.
Plan ahead where possible. The practice finds it hard to organise last minute requests for repeat prescriptions or letters as they need to be processed.
A Tip for your consultations
Think about what you want to say to the doctor & write down a few key points if it helps you to remember things that may be important.
If you contact us with a minor ailment, you may be navigated to a pharmacy close to you. They will be able to offer advice and make recommendations of over-the-counter medications.
Use the machine to take your blood pressure when you are at the surgery and hand in the results, so that you & the doctors can keep an eye on things.
Musculoskeletal Practitioners
You can book in directly with musculoskeletal practitioners, who hold regular clinics at our Larwood surgery. Musculoskeletal practitioners can help with the following:
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strains or sports injuries
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All soft tissue injuries or sprains
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Arthritis – any joint
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Possible problems with muscles, ligaments, tendons or bone, eg tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, ankle sprains
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Spinal pain including lower back pain, mid-back pain and neck pain
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Spinal-related pain in arms or legs, including nerve symptoms, eg pins and needles or numbness
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Post-orthopaedic surgery (can differ between localities)
Chronic disease reviews
We have systems in place to ensure that you are recalled on an annual basis. If you have a long term condition which requires medication you need to follow advice and attend appropriate tests and booked appointments. Attending these reviews allow us to monitor your condition and make adjustments to medications, etc.
Failure to do so may result in your condition getting worse and clinicians may reduce the number of tablets they are prepared to prescribe ie make your prescriptions weekly.
If we work together, we will get the best results.
Cancelling Appointments
If you would like to cancel an appointment which is within 72 hours, please call us on 01909 500 233 and press option 1 to leave a message on our Cancellations line.
If you would like to change an appointment which is within 72 hours, please call us on 01909 500 233 and press option 6 to speak with our reception team.
If you would like to change or cancel an appointment 72 hours or more away, you can send us an admin request on our online access tool or call us on 01909 500 233 option 6 to speak with our reception team.