Referrals to hospital teams and other specialists are often made by your clinicians and these are mainly done via an electronic booking system. You will receive paperwork from us that includes a UBRN number and a password unique to that request you must then follow the instructions in the paperwork and book the appointment yourself (if there are any available) or be added to a waiting list managed by the team that you have been referred to. If you have not received initial paperwork from us within 2 weeks please call and speak to our admin team. Once you have followed the instructions in the paperwork you should direct all further enquiries to the hospital appointment team, we have no control over the secondary care waiting lists, the only exception to this is if your Clinician feels that your medical condition has changed significantly for the worse and it may be possible for them to write to the hospital but again we do not control the waiting list and it will be up to the consultants to decide if the appointment should be expedited.

Thank you for your assistance.

The Surgery Team.

From today 15^th May, 2023 we have been instructed by NHSE to undertake more care navigation when patients contact us to request appointments. NHS UK stated on the 9^th May 2023 that 15% of current GP appointments could be navigated to self care, community pharmacies, First contact physios, A&E or 999.

Care navigation and clinical triage allow practices to prioritise patients with the most urgent health needs, using a clinician agreed protocol, to ensure they see the most appropriate clinician or are signposted to alternative services.

Triage systems can: 

• Improve access to health services as practices can direct patients to the right practitioner/service (Community Pharmacy / urgent care/A&E services).
• Improve patient care by ensuring that patients with the highest or most complex health needs are prioritised.
• Maximise workforce capacity by making the best use of skills mix in the practice / wider health care teams.

Once we have reached appointment capacity Reception staff will continue to triage requests for appointments and navigate as usual directing patients, if need be, to NHS Online for advice and guidance or to call 111.

Please be kind to our reception / admin teams, they do not make up the rules they just follow the directives of NHSE. They will do their best to help and point you in the right direction to ensure more efficient use of the NHS system.

We have recently seen an increase in abusive behaviour towards staff members both face to face and on the telephone.  The NHS is under immense pressure at the moment with parents anxious about Group A Strep and all of the usual winter illnesses on top of the normal everyday issues that patients have. The increase in pressure on A&E, NHS 111 and our out of hours service is having a knock on to the demands on surgery.  We continue to have very real challenges with locum supply.  We do appreciate the problems for patients as we are all patients ourselves and experience the challenges facing the NHS as patients too.  We will not accept abusive behaviour towards staff and recently we have had, on a regular basis, staff reduced to tears because of abuse. Please help us to help you.  Thank you.