Appointment System Booking Changes April 2023
Dear patient,
From 24th April 2023 the practice GP appointment system will change from a telephone consultation first system to being able to pre-book a face to face consultation with the Doctor.
Routine Appointments
To ease congestion and help patient’s get through on the telephone we will book routine appointments on 3 days of the week as follows:
- Contact us on a Monday to book a routine appointment for Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Contact us on Wednesday to book a routine appointment for Thursday or Friday.
- Contact us on a Friday to book a routine appointment for Monday.
Urgent Appointments
Urgent appointments will be available daily. These will be for patients whose medical problem requires an examination, treatment etc. From the Doctor on the same day. These appointments are to ensure that the most unwell patients get the care they need promptly.
For all appointment requests the practice administration team, who are all trained Care Navigators will ask the nature of the problem/illness. This is very important so that you can be allocated the correct appointment. As well as face to face appointments with the Doctor, we offer the following consultations;
- Telephone consultation with the Doctor – this is for patients who do not need a physical examination.
- Practice Nurse Clinics – Smears, respiratory, Asthma/COPD, 24 hour BP monitoring, hypertension, INR clinics, diabetes & complex condition clinics, contraception reviews, vaccines etc.
- Practice Physiotherapist – for joint pain/muscle pain/MSK issues etc.
- Senior Mental Health Practitioner – for anxiety, depression, coping issues etc.
- Social Worker – for any issues that impact your social and emotional health and wellbeing.
- Practice Pharmacist – for medication issues
- Treatment Room Nurses – for various tests, investigations, injections, dressings etc.
Please inform practice staff of any change to your contact details including address and telephone number.
There are also other free services patients can use directly at many local pharmacies without contacting the practice;
Minor ailments – for acne, athletes foot, acute diarrhoea, ear wax, groin area infection, haemorrhoids, head lice, mouth ulcers, scabies, threadworms, oral thrush, vaginal thrush & verruca.
UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) – service for females aged 16 to 64 years old, with no previous history of UTI’s.
Emergency hormonal contraception (morning after pill) – free emergency contraception for females over the age of 13 years.
Many local pharmacies offer these free services – for appropriate consultations the Pharmacist will see you in their private consultation rooms.
WHSCT MSK Physio self-referral - for adults over 16 who need support and advice to manage symptoms related to muscle strains/joint sprains/back and neck pain. Details of this service are available on WHSCT website.
NI PEARS – this is the name of the service provided by many local opticians for common eye problems, such as; red eye, painful eye, reduction in vision, floaters in the eye, suspected foreign body in the eye. This is a FREE service.
By using these services appropriately you will help patients with other problems see the Doctor.
Some information and numbers
- Demand for GP appointments is exceptionally high. Our Doctors and staff work tirelessly to deliver a very high standard of care to our patient population.
- Approximately 90% of all health care contact by patients is at the GP practice.
- We are a large practice with a patient list size of 8,700 patients. This number is continually increasing as we register new patients. This is a mandatory requirement set by the local health authorities.
- We have 3 full time Doctors and 3 part time Doctors.
- We have over 400 face to face consultations available weekly with the Doctors each week.
- We have 400 consultations available with the Practice Nurses, Treatment Room Nurses, Practice Physiotherapist and Senior Mental Health Practitioner each week.
- We issue acute and repeat prescriptions for 1200 patients each week.
- Park Medical is a GP training practice so we are doing our part to train the Doctors of the future. This will improve the health service for the benefit of everyone.
- As well as seeing patients, the Doctors have to do many other tasks every day. This includes, prescriptions, medication reviews, review & action patient test results, review and action hospital letters, make patient referrals to other services, issue sick lines, complete PIP and ESA reports, insurance forms. See patients in specialist clinics, minor surgery, contraceptive implants, and vaccine clinics. Doctors also carry out home visits and see patients in nursing homes and provide end of life palliative care.
We work very hard to provide these services to our patients.
Park Medical Doctors.