Appointments

Our appointment system consists of some appointments which are pre-bookable up to one month in advance, some a week ahead, others a day ahead and some appointments which can only be booked on the day. If you know you need a routine review appointment, please book this in good time or even before leaving the surgery after your previous appointment. This helps ensure we can offer you various day and time options, rather than finding there is reduced availability if you ring closer to the time you need to be seen.

Our aim is to offer everyone an appointment time that suits them, and we constantly re-evaluate our patients' needs. However, Mondays are always very busy, despite 120 appointments being available, so we would ask you to bear this in mind when you ring. Please try to ring after 11.00am for routine appointments, test results and queries, leaving the first hours of the day for those patients who need urgent medical attention that day.

Extended Hours

Extended hours appointments are only bookable in advance and our telephone lines are transferred to the out-of-hours service as normal so that any urgent medical care continues to be provided by Serco Health in accordance with the Primary Care Trust's wishes.

We hold extended hours clinics on:

Saturday mornings - Most Saturday mornings we offer a clinic starting from 8.45am.

Weekday late evenings - We rotate between Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, providing at least one late evening clinic per week. Each of our partners work these clinics rotationally and appointments are available from 6.15pm.

Home Visits

We would ask that a home visit only be requested by patients who are too ill to travel to the surgery, not only because home visits consume a lot of valuable doctor's time, but also because we have better facilities for examining and treating you in the surgery. Lack of transport is not an acceptable reason for a home visit. Where possible please phone before 10.30am giving name, address, telephone number and some indication of illness.

If you require urgent medical advice please telephone the usual surgery number 01726 882745. There is always an available Duty Doctor.

Telephone Advice

If you need to speak to a doctor for advice over the telephone it is best to ring Probus Surgery either mid-morning or early afternoon. A doctor will usually be available to take your call or telephone you back.

Test Results

Test results are usually back at the surgery within 48 hours. The doctor reviews all results and the receptionist or GP will contact you if any abnormalities are detected which need discussion or repeat tests arranged.

If you have not heard anything you can normally assume that the test results came back as normal but you can telephone our receptionist staff if you wish after two working days who will be able to confirm this. It would be helpful if you could delay such calls until after 11am on any weekday.