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Appointments
Before booking an appointment please check who is best placed to deal with your condition:
Many conditions can be dealt with without the need to see your GP. You can try a local pharmacy for advice about a range of conditions and we also have lots of self help information available by clicking here.
Please try this advice before contacting the Practice.
Please don’t be offended if you are asked what the problem is when you ring to book an appointment.
This is called Care Navigation and it’s about helping you get to the service you need!
Book Your Appointment
Contact the surgery in the following ways:
Please call during Reception opening times
GP Appointment? Don't need it? Cancel it!
We know people forget things, cancelling GP appointments being one of them. Remember to cancel your appointment if you don't need it.
How to Cancel an Appointment
If you are unable to keep your appointment, please give us as much notice as possible so that your appointment can be offered to someone else.
If you are cancelling please telephone us on 01580 712476 as soon as possible, and at least 30 minutes before your appointment time. This will enable us to offer your appointment to someone else.
Alternatively you can cancel your appointment online using The NHS App if you are signed up to the service.
Please remember that there may be a shortage of appointments and when you fail to attend you have prevented someone else from being seen in your place. On average about 230 appointments are missed each month.
Cancellations notified less than 30 minutes before the appointment time will be recorded as failure to attend (DNA).
Repeated failure to attend booked appointments is a significant waste of NHS resources
Types Of Appointment
For doctors consultations Monday to Friday we have three types of appointment: ‘on the day’, ‘pre-bookable’ and telephone’.
On The Day
These appointments are prioritised for those patients with URGENT needs. To book a consultation, telephone reception at 8.30am and you will be offered a 10 minute slot in the morning surgery. It may not always be possible to provide the time and doctor you prefer. Mondays are always very busy so please don’t attend for routine appointments. Please help us out by making your requirements reasonable when a doctor is on holiday. The doctors prefer to see patients in the mornings when all the support services are available, for example blood can only be taken early in the day.
Pre-Bookable
We also allot a limited number of pre-bookable appointments which can be booked up to six weeks in advance. However, if your preference has been booked by other patients we can only offer the next available pre-bookable which may be on another day with another doctor. These appointments are intended for patients with transport difficulties who may need to make special arrangements to get here or commuters who may need to go on to work or come home early. These appointments are also available to be booked via our online service. Please note we cannot convert our ‘on the day’ slots to ‘pre-bookables' because it is important we keep a full supply of ‘on the day’ slots.
Telephone Consultations
You may ask for or be offered a telephone consultation where the doctor will telephone to assess you, give advice or arrange to see you.
Urgent Need
If a medically urgent situation arises during opening hours always phone the receptionist first if you can before coming to the surgery as the doctor may be out of the building.
The receptionist will then be able to contact him if needed.
Urgent Treatment Centre
Sevenoaks Urgent Treatment Centre, based at Sevenoaks Hospital is Open 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week 365 days a year and has two GPs stationed there throughout the day.
The service is suitable for patients for same day appointments that cannot wait 24 hours to be seen.
Patients can be seen by a GP in the UTC either by obtaining an appointment through NHS 111 by asking for a booked appointment, or alternatively signposted to attend as a walk-in.
Extended Hours Service
Extended hours appointments are available 7am to 8am on Wednesday and 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Monday evenings.
Practice Nurses
In a number of cases it might be worth considering an appointment with a practice nurse rather than a doctor. Practice nurses are qualified to deal with many ailments and you may be seen more quickly. Claudia the nurse does not work to time restrictions on types of appointment and works 9am to 5pm, 5 days a week so please simplify this and remove all appointment type time slots references
iPlato Text Messaging
We now use a text messaging service (iPlato) at Old School Surgery. All patients that are registered and have updated their contact details to include a mobile phone number will be able to use this service. The service will send out appointment reminders 24hrs before your appointment. If you cannot attend, please text back the word “CANCEL” to cancel the appointment.
We hope the new text messaging system will make it easier for patients to cancel appointments, and also remind you of all booked appointments.