Monday mornings

Demand for appointments has been growing steadily over recent years. We are keen to try and meet demand as much as we are able and are trying to come up with different solutions to meet patients’ requirements.

During June 2006 we ran a trial on Monday mornings which is one of our busiest times.

Every request for an appointment or advice was given to one doctor. They dedicated the morning to calling patients back and giving telephone advice or seeing them at the surgery if necessary.

At the end of the trial I wrote to all patients who had used the service to ask how they found it. The overwhelming opinion was that patients liked dealing with the surgery this way. As a result we have decided to introduce this service on most Monday mornings from 3 JULY 2006.

If you phone on a Monday morning the doctor will try and deal with your problem over the phone. If this is not possible they will make you an appointment with the most appropriate member of our team. This may be a nurse not a doctor. Our nurse (Mary MacDougall) has now been trained to run minor illness clinics.

We hope that this will be a good new development for patients and that it helps you access our services more easily.

Wendy Greenberg, Practice Manager June 2006