Appointments

We try to offer an appointment with a Doctor within 48 hours & a Nurse/Nurse Practitioner within 24 hours.

We have a mxiture of appointments that can be pre-booked or be booked on the day of request. Telephone consultations are also available.

• We do run an appointment system, however, those who need to be seen urgently will be offered an appointment the same day.
• You may request the doctor you prefer to see.
• In an emergency your details will be assessed by a doctor and you will be seen as soon as necessary.
• Urgent cases will be seen within 24 hours
• We aim to see non urgent cases within 48 hours.
• If you think your problem can be dealt with over the telephone, you can ask for a telephone consultation with the Doctor - these are available throughout the day, where you will be given an approximate time when the Doctor will ring you.
• Saturday morning surgery appointments are pre-booked only

In return we ask you to

• Request appointments as soon as possible after 8.00am if you wish to be seen the same day.
• Cancel any appointments you cannot keep as early as possible so that the time can be made available to someone else.
• Request emergency or urgent appointments only when absolutely necessary.
• Observe the "one patient, one appointment" rule and not to compromise the Doctor by asking him/her to treat other family members at the same time.

Home Visits

The medical centre is the best place for us to see anyone. Sometimes we may need to see you at home.

Every request for a home visit will be assessed by a doctor. We allocate some time for visits each day but concentrate on providing surgery consultations so that more people can be seen throughout the day.

Night cover is provided by Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust at the Out of Hours Centre at the University Hospital of North Durham. 

In return we ask you to

• Not to request a home visit unless the patient is too ill to be brought to the surgery.
• Ensure that requests for home visits are made before 10.00 am.
• If you feel an immediate visit is needed, please let the receptionist know.
• Confine requests for night visits to complaints that really cannot wait until the next days surgery.

Waiting Times

We would normally expect that patients are seen within 20 minutes of their appointment time and we will always try to keep patients informed if we are running late so that you can re-book your appointment if necessary.

In return we ask you to

• Appreciate that waiting times may be beyond our control, for example if the doctor is called out on an emergency, or at times of peak demand.
• Attend punctually for surgery.
• Appreciate the exact time of consultation cannot be assured.
• Avoid calling for home visits immediately before or during evening surgery times except in an emergency.
• Cancel if you are unable to attend and to re-book your appointment if desired.