Appointment Information

Variety of Appointments

We offer appointments at each of the sites in Newton Aycliffe and Shildon. All clinicians (Doctors. Nurses and Health Care Assistants) can offer booked telephone appointments. We also have an internal messaging system for you to obtain results and pass messages to any clinician.

Variety of Practitioners

All clinicians have access to your electronic medical record. Whoever you see should have access to previous consultations with another practitioner.

Chaperones

If you would like a chaperone present during your examination, please inform the clinician.

Home Visits

If possible, please try to telephone reception before 10am if you require a home visit.

A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.

House visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the surgery.

Making or Cancelling an Appointment

You can make an appointment by phone, calling at the reception desk and On-line. When making an appointment please be prepared to give some limited information on the nature of the problem so the receptionist can advise you correctly. We may sometimes call you back to discuss the appointment further. If you cancel, please do so as far ahead as you can to enable someone else to book in your slot.

Online Appointments

Appointments can now be done online along with the ability to order repeat prescriptions. You will need to visit the surgery to obtain a username and password to use this service, please ensure you bring a form of photo ID when coming to register for this service. Ask at reception for details.

SMS (Text Messaging) Service

We now offer SMS (text message) appointment reminders. We send appointment reminders to you the day before your appointment. To take advantage of this service please make sure we have your up-to-date mobile phone number.

Text messages are generated using a secure facility, but they are transmitted over a public network onto a personal telephone and as such may not be secure. The practice will not transmit any of your personal identifiable information.

If you’d prefer not to use this service, please inform a receptionist.