Dial 01736 793333 to speak to our reception team. They are trained in Active Signposting. They will help you with your question, either by direct action or booking you with the most appropriate member of our team.

COVID 19 - Before attending surgery you will be asked about COVID 19 symptoms (Fever, new continuous cough or loss of smell/taste). If you have a prebooked appointment and then develop any of these symptoms please call reception to discuss this. Due to COVID-19 we are not currently booking any appointments online.

• Dial 01736 793333 or complete an eConsult. 
• On the day you want to talk to your doctor call the surgery, the reception team will discuss your request and if needed will book you with your registered GP.
• Your GP will call you back and discuss your health issue. Currently most queries are completed with a telephone call. We may use video consultations, or ask you to send pictures to help (we are using AccuRx to do both of these functions. Messages come to you via Text message). 
• If we need to see you in surgery for an examination, we will book you in with us or another member of the team. It is likely this will be the same day.
• We cannot currently pre-book GP appointments. We ask you call on the day you need help. You will be booked that day or the next day your doctor is in. Working this way has vastly improved the time you have to wait to talk to your GP. We can follow you up. We will simply ask you to call back in a certain time period.

Minor Injury or Minor Illness

• Dial 01736 793333
• The reception team can now direct book you into a face to face appointment with one of our nurse practitioners. The appointment will be the same day at a given time slot.
• Our nurse practitioners are highly trained nurses who have worked with use for many years delivering this service. They can assess, diagnose, investigate and prescribe for your health issue. For minor injuries and illnesses they are at least as good as a GP, often better.

Minor Injuries Unit (MIU)

Our MIU is open from 08:00 - 20:00 Monday-Friday for injuries. We have always offered a drop-in service for minor injuries - however during the COVID pandemic to we ask you call ahead on 01736 793333, this allow us to ensure you are free of COVID symptoms before arriving at our surgery, if a phone call is not possible we will endeavour to be adaptable.

Always call 999 in an emergency.

• Dial 01736 793333
• The reception team will ensure you are booked with the right nurse for the right task. These appointments will be given a time slot, they can be booked up to a few weeks in advance.
• As these appointments are booked in advance - if you develop COVID 19 symptoms in the 14days prior to your appointment. Please call reception to discuss this and probably re-arrange your appointment.
• Blood tests are happening via a hatch built round a clinic room window. This keeps you in the open air making social distancing simpler. 
• Chronic disease appointments are happening via the telephone. Diabetes, COPD/Asthma etc. Our experienced practice nurses will call you back and discuss your chronic disease. 

Other team members - Pharmacist. Administrative team. Our reception team may direct you to another team member if they are the right person for that question.

Out of office hours -  for acute illness requiring medical attention contact NHS 111 (either dial 111 or www.111.nhs.uk). for a medical emergency dial 999.

Many queries and problems can be dealt with over the telephone.  If you wish to speak with a Nurse, Pharmacist or GP over the telephone please ask the reception team to book a telephone consultation. Please note, this may not necessarily take place on the same day (dependant on the urgency of the request).

Tips to get the best out of telephone first consultations

• To maintain continuity with your doctor, know what day they work and call up on those days. See the staff page of this website for Doctors usual working days.
• Download the "whereby" app. We are using this app to do video consultations using your smart phone. Video consultation has been shown to be as effective as face to face consultation.
• Monday is our busiest day, we are quieter later in the week, please consider this if your problem is not urgent.
• If your hearing is not great it is ok for someone else to talk for you on the phone.
• As with all consultations, think about what you would like from the consultation and be clear about telling us what that is. 

Home visits are for patients who are housebound and unable to travel to the Stennack Surgery.

It is always best to attend the surgery for your appointments when possible as the clinicians have access to all your electronic medical records and all their examination equipment.  

Please try hard to arrange transport to the surgery where possible, using public transport, family, friends and taxis.

We encourage people with time and transport to kindly offer their help to relations and neighbours who find transport difficult. 

If you require a home visit please try to contact the Surgery before 10:00am

A GP will then triage this request and a home visit will be organised if required

AccuRx is a new IT solution to help GP's deliver consultations without being in the same room. 90% of all GP practices are now using this service. 

Their website tells you more - www.accurx.com and

this link specifically helps you if we have sent you a message https://support.accurx.com/en/collections/2279595-accurx-for-patients

We can send you text messages to your mobile phone. This can range from just information, to inviting you to send us pictures, join a video consultation, or sending you a document such as a fit note.

For sending pictures it is really simple. This has revolutionised how we manages rashes and skin lesions. We have often wished we had a good technological solution for you to send photos, and it took a pandemic for us to get one. You will receive a text message, simply click on the link, attach your picture and send. It arrives direct on our desktop and we can save it simply to your medical record to compare at a later date.

As you can see on the AccuRx website, their data protection complies with all NHS regulations, you need your date of birth to respond to messages, and it invites your consent to us storing your photos (rest assured we will only ask for appropriate images). 

Video consultations. Work quite well. Sadly the quality is not always what we like, but we suspect this links to our internet speed in the surgery which is not as good as most home broadband. We do use this when appropriate, but will also bring patients into surgery if needed.

Text message communication. You may find over the coming months as we get used to this technology that you get more text messages from the surgery. Communicating things like, invites to book flu jabs, advising your prescription has been processed, advising you to book repeat blood tests, sending a sick note, linking some patient information after a phone call. We think this is good and will make communicating with you easier. But welcome feedback to whether you agree. 

It helps us if you register to receive information by text message on your phone regarding appointments and health care. 

If you wish to register for this messaging service please fill out the consent form.

Want advice from your doctor, access self-help information or have an administrative request? Please click on the link/image opposite.

Why not try eConsult a secure electronic service which is accessible 24:7.

PLEASE BE AWARE - e-Consult is a non-urgent service, we aim to respond to all requests 48 hours, only available to registered patients of the Stennack Surgery.

https://thestennacksurgery.webgp.com/ 

It is important that you inform the reception staff if you are unable to attend your appointment, this will allow that appointment to be offered to another patient. If you fail to notify the Practice that you are unable to attend, you will be sent a letter informing you that you have defaulted from your appointment. Persistent defaulters maybe removed from the list.

You can also complete our appointment cancellation notification request form. This can only be used if your appointment has been arranged for more than 24 hours in advance. (excluding weekends and public holidays). You can also text to cancel your appointment.