Dear patients we will take all calls during our opening hrs of 8am to 6.30pm Monday To Friday. All of the calls for appointments, queries, requests for home visits or medical certificates etc will be added a triage slot for our clinical team to review and deal with appropriately. This could mean you get a call back from a clinician, you are navigated to a different pathway like the local pharmacy first service or you are asked to come in later on the same day for a face to face appointment.
To make the triage appointments work our reception staff will be asking you some questions when you call the surgery to book an appointment or use Patchs our online tool where you can fill in the questions on line. Our staff will not be asking triage questions at the front desk, instead they will ask patients to call or use the online tool.
These questions help our clinical team deal with each patient efficiently so they do not have to ask you to repeat the information given to the reception staff. If you have any questions regarding this change to our appointment system please put them in writing to the kingsway.receptionist@nhs.net email address.
Home visits
If you are unable to come to the Surgery due to illness and require a home visit, please call the Surgery before 10am.
If you are mobile we request that you come into the surgery whenever possible.
Accessing Enhanced Access – Out-of-Hours appointments
GP practices across The Dengie and South Woodham Ferrers are working together to provide the right services at a convenient time. We’ve listened to feedback from people in our local area and are making changes to our out-of-hours appointments to deliver better services for you.
The new way of delivering out-of-hours appointments will give you:
- Access to more healthcare professionals. This new service will be delivered by professionals including GPs, Nurses (Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANP’s), Healthcare Assistants (HCA’s), Practice Nurses), and Pharmacists.
- More choice about the type of appointment you want. These include a mixture of in-person face-to-face appointments and remote telephone appointments.
- Make it more convenient for you to travel to out-of-hours appointments. These appointments are being planned and delivered locally at Crouch Vale Medical Centre
From Saturday 1 October 2022, out-of-hours appointments will be available from 6.30pm to 8pm on weekdays, and from 9 am to 5 pm on Saturdays.
When we asked local people what you wanted from these appointments you told us you wanted additional GP and Nurse appointments on weekday evenings and weekends. In response, we have an additional 15.5 hours of GP appointments and 9.95 hours of nurse appointments available each week (subject to bank holidays and Time to Learn afternoons).
Out-of-hours appointments were previously planned by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) on behalf of many GP practices in a bigger area. From Saturday 1 October 2022, this is now being planned and delivered locally by Primary Care Networks (PCNs).
We are working together with other GP practices in our local area as part of the Benfleet Primary Care Network. You can find out more about The Dengie and South Woodham Ferrers Primary PCN website at The Dengie and SWF PCN
An out-of-hours appointment might not be at your regular GP surgery. When you book an appointment, you will be told where the appointment will be.
These appointments will not be available as walk-in appointments. You will need to book them in advance.
To book an out-of-hours appointment, you should contact your regular GP practice in the usual way. They will advise you on the available appointments and which healthcare professional is the right person to help you.
If you need medical help now but it’s not an emergency, you can also go to 111 online or call 111.
Saturday clinics
There will be Saturday clinics coming later for the flu vaccinations and the autumn covid vaccinations.
