![calendar](website/G81050/files/calendar.jpg) | Appointments |
We offer a mix of pre-bookable and book on the day appointments. These appointments are a mix of face to face or telephone consultations.
Once all our routine appointments are gone for the day, our clinicians will telephone triage all requests for urgent treatment and advice. If your problem is not urgent but there are no pre-bookable appointments available in an acceptable timeframe, you will be asked to call again opportunistically for a routine book on the day appointment.
Our receptionists are trained to ask you what you need to consult about, this ensures you see or speak to the most appropriate member of the healthcare team and also enables our clinicians to deal with telephone calls in order of clinical urgency.
In addition to our in-house clinicians we have other services at our disposal which you may be offered as an alternative to seeing or talking to an Arlington Road Clinician. Please see below for more information about the Extended Access Appointments and the Community Pharmacy Consultation Service.
Extended Access Appointments
South Downs Health and Care GP Federation (SDHC) provides additional appointment capacity for all GP Practices in Eastbourne, Hailsham and Seaford as well as the Havens and High Weald.
The Enhanced Access Service (EAS) that they deliver is designed to help increase the capacity to talk to and see a healthcare professional. Appointments are available 7 days per week, 365 days per year.
The GP or Advanced Care Practitioner that you see or speak to will not be from Arlington Road and it is very possible they won’t be from East Sussex but the Healthcare Professional that you speak with will be fully qualified, will be able to access your notes and will be able to issue a prescription if needed.
These appointments are bookable via our receptionists, you may be routinely offered one of these consultations and if not, you are welcome to ask to book one. Face to face appointments tend to be located at the SDHC Primary Care Hub at Hampden Park Health Centre, Brodrick Close.
Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS)
We are also now participating in a new approach to improve access for patients to GP appointments. The aim is to direct patients to the most appropriate healthcare professional, which may be a GP or a pharmacist.
If your symptoms could be resolved by a booked consultation with the pharmacist instead of the GP, you may be offered a same-day referral to a pharmacy of your choice.
We think this is a good thing. Once you see how great your local pharmacist is – they are highly trained and skilled clinicians experienced in treating minor illnesses – we don’t think you’ll look back.
This will also help us to free up GP appointments for people with more complex health needs and ensure that everyone gets treated at the right time, by the right healthcare professional.
We are keen to hear what your think and will be listening to your comments and feedback about your experience of using this service.
Q & A’s about CPCS
What is this new service about?
When you call the practice, you will be asked about your symptoms. If they indicate that you can best be helped by a pharmacist, you will be offered a same day one-to-one, confidential consultation with a community pharmacist at one of our local pharmacies. Community pharmacists have already successfully seen thousands of patients for a consultation for a minor illness, following a call to NHS 111. This new way of arranging consultations with the pharmacist by a GP practice, has been successfully piloted around the country.
Why are you doing this?
Pharmacists are qualified healthcare professionals and experts in medicines. They can offer clinical advice and over-the-counter medicines for all sorts of minor illnesses, and a same day consultation can be arranged quickly and at a time to suit you. This in turns frees up GP appointments for those people with more complex symptoms who really need to see a GP.
What happens when I see the community pharmacist?
We will share your personal details with the pharmacist and details of your minor illness and the pharmacist will contact you to arrange your consultation on the same day, or at a time that suits you. You may be seen in person in a private consulting room, if the pharmacist thinks it appropriate, or your consultation may be carried out over the phone or via video. You will be asked about your medical history and symptoms and current medication, in the same way the GP would ask you about them. Usually, the pharmacist will provide you with advice and can sell you an over- the-counter product where needed, if you choose. They will also send details of your consultation back to us for our records. If the pharmacist feels you need to be seen by a GP urgently, they will call us to ensure you are seen, or they will advise you to contact the hospital emergency department if deemed necessary. You may also be referred back to us to arrange a non-urgent appointment or follow up.
Being referred by the Surgery and having an actual Consultation with the Pharmacist is very different to just getting advice over the counter from the Pharmacy Counter Assistant.
What if I get free prescriptions from my GP?
Your pharmacist will provide you with advice on how to treat your symptoms, which may include a medicine or product. Medicines that can be purchased in a pharmacy to treat minor illnesses, are usually inexpensive and would not normally be prescribed by your GP anyway. You are free to choose if you wish to make a purchase or not.
What happens if I don’t want to see the pharmacist?
We want to ensure that you are offered an appointment with the most appropriate qualified health care professional based on your symptoms. If you have minor illness symptoms that can be treated the same day through a consultation with a qualified community pharmacist, but do not want to accept this referral, you will be offered a routine appointment with your GP at a future date.
What if the patient is my child?
Children aged over one year are eligible to use this service and can be seen by the pharmacist. Children who are able to make their own decision about their health may be seen unaccompanied.
Why is this a good thing for patients?
Community pharmacies are local, open longer hours than the GP practice and can offer you the same consultation outcome at a time that is more convenient for you. If the pharmacist thinks you need to see the GP, they can help arrange an urgent appointment for you. Patients who have already used the service liked the convenience of having a consultation on the same day, or a day that suited them, at a pharmacy of their choice. Nearly four out of five people (78%) who had a consultation with a community pharmacist were successfully helped.
Cancellations
Remember if you cannot keep an appointment or no longer need it please contact us to cancel it, you can do this by one of the following methods...
- Telephoning into the Practice and leaving an answerphone message on the appointment cancellation line at any time of day or night
- Telephoning the Practice during the working day and speaking to a receptionist
- Via Patient Online Services, if you have registered for this service.
- Replying 'cancel' to your SMS appointment reminder.
As we continue to experience a high number of unattended pre-booked appointments we will write to you if you miss a doctor’s appointment. After three missed appointments it is the practice policy to only allow you to book appointments through the receptionists and not via Patient Online Services.
Appointment Reminders
We have the facility to send SMS appointment reminders. To benefit from this service, please ensure you have given us an up to date mobile number. The service will remind you of your appointment and also give you the opportunity to cancel your appointment by replying with the word 'cancel'. You will be charged at your normal network rate for the reply. Please do not include any other text with your message as this will not be recognised by the system and will result in the appointment not being automatically cancelled.