This information is intended to help you understand how our appointment system works so you can be seen as effectively and appropriately as possible.

Our aim is to see any patient who has a health problem within a timeframe that is appropriate for that problem. As a practice we undertake over 46,500 appointments per year for our patient population of over 6,900. Within the NHS, GPs provide over 90% of all medical care for the UK population. For this reason, it can be a massive challenge to match the needs of patients with the supply of appointments. We are doing our best in times of unprecedented pressure and we ask you to be respectful of this.

How do I make an appointment?

By Phone

Appointments can be made on the day by calling the practice at 8am and speaking with a member of our reception team. Our reception team have been trained to ask questions about your complaint and guide you to the most appropriate appointment, which may not always be a GP in the first instance.  You may instead be:

• Offered a hub appointment (see below for more info)
• Booked directly with the physiotherapist, nurse, or another health care professional.
• Asked to attend the walk-in-centre.
• Asked to call back the following day.
• Pointed towards A&E/999
• Placed on our ‘duty doctor’ call back list.

We now operate a telephone call back system and will be given the option to use this if there are long hold times to speak with reception. This avoids you having to remain on the phone for prolonged periods of time. If you choose this option, you will be called by our automated system when you reach the top of the queue. Please be aware, we will call you once, and if you miss this call you will have to call the surgery again and start from the beginning.  

There are a few appointments which are bookable in advance, but we would please still ask patients to call on the day so that these can be used appropriately.  

Booking Online

We have an online triage for non-urgent queries, this service is available between the hours of 9am and 12pm. We aim to respond to these within 5 working days. We would ask that this is only used for non-urgent matters as it can take up to 4 weeks to get an appointment this way. If an online request is deemed to be urgent, you will be contacted and asked to call the surgery directly to make an appointment to speak with a doctor. Please include as much information as possible in your request as this helps guide the clinician triaging.

To make an appointment this way you need to gain access a link which you can obtain by:

• Asking reception to send it to you in a text message.
• Going on our website where you will find it on the home page.
• If you struggle with technology, you can ask our reception team to add it manually for you.

Home Visits

We ask you to try and make requests for home visits before 10am. We understand this is not always possible.

Home visits are limited to patients who genuinely can’t get out of their home. If you attend other appointments such as the dentist or hospital, we will ask you to come down to the surgery. You might need to ask a family member, friend, or taxi to bring you – we will do our best to accommodate this and work around a convenient appointment time for you.

A GP can see 3-4 patients at the surgery in the time it takes to do a home visit. They also have all the resources and equipment to hand for a thorough and comprehensive assessment. If you can be seen at the surgery, it is better for you and the doctor.

What happens when there are no appointments available, and I have an urgent problem?

 Urgent problems are issues that can’t wait until the following day. Examples of this include: 

• Unwell vulnerable adults and children 
• Palliative care patients 
• Mental health crises  

We have an on-call doctor each day who deals with ‘urgent’ matters. This doctor does not have dedicated appointment slots and must manage their time and workload around multiple different tasks, including home visits.

If your problem is deemed urgent you will be placed down for a call back from the ‘duty doctor’. We are unable to give you an appointment time and you could receive a call at any time during the morning or afternoon. For this reason, we ask you to be readily available to either answer the phone or attend the surgery for an appointment at any time that day.

It is generally considered if your problem is urgent then you are readily available at any time.

Please note – the purpose of the duty doctor is to triage the urgency of your problem. For this reason, your problem might not be delt with during this call but on a later date. 

Routine appointments are available with a nurse at various times throughout the day. Demand for some appointment times can be high and you are advised to book in advance. Please inform the receptionist of the reason you wish to see the nurse at the time of booking, to ensure that adequate time is allowed for your appointment.

There are satellite hubs across Sheffield that offer GP appointments with ‘extended access’. These are located at Jordanthorpe Health Centre, Crystal Peaks Medical Centre and The Mathews Practice. Remote and face-to-face appointments can be made with a variety of GP practice staff including Doctors, Advance Care Practitioners, Nurses, Nurse Associates, Health Care Assistants, Physiotherapists and Pharmacists.

Appointments run from 6.30 pm to 9.30 pm during the week, and between 9 am and 6 pm on a Saturday. This may suit your needs better if you are working during the week and can sometimes provide you with access to a GP or healthcare professional quicker. 

One problem per appointment – a routine appointment is 10 minutes. Within this time the GP needs to read your records, get you from the waiting room, deal with your problem(s), write up the notes and prescribe/request investigations. If you have more than one problem, the doctor can’t safely deal with them all in a single appointment. If you have multiple problems, please tell the receptionist so adequate time can be arranged.   Telephone appointments – Our reception team have been trained to identify what problems can be delt with over the phone or those that need a face-to-face appointment. If the receptionist or clinician is asking you to attend face-to-face, it is for your safety, and we are unable to work around this. If you are calling for an on-the day or urgent duty doctor appointment, the expectation is you are available to attend the surgery if you are asked to. If you can’t attend face-to-face, you will be asked to call back on a day when you can.   When will the doctor call? – For telephone appointments, the GP will aim to call you at the time of the appointment, but depending on clinical demand it could be earlier or later. As a rule, the GP will call twice and if they are unable to make contact it will be marked as a ‘did not attend’ and you will be asked to re-book.   Can anyone else help? – before making an appointment, please think about whether anyone else can help first. If you have been seen by hospital specialists or on waiting lists for clinic appointments or surgery, please call them directly yourself on the numbers provided in your letters. Pharmacists are trained to give you advice about minor health problems and medications.   Medication requests – we ask you to be organised and order your repeat medications in advance of time. Medication requests and queries may take 2-3 days to process, we are unable to do this urgently if you forget to order on time.    Out of Sheffield? – if you are out of Sheffield for work or holiday, we will ask you to attend a local service instead. We will not manage acute issues over the phone or send acute prescriptions to pharmacies outside of Sheffield.   What’s the problem? – We appreciate it can be difficult to disclose the nature of your problem to the reception team. The information helps guide them to make you the right appointment with the right person. All our staff have a duty of confidentiality, and we take this very seriously.   Home visits – we have a variety of clinicians who may visit you at home. These include paramedics, GPs, GP registrars, nurses, or our physicians associate.   Dental Problems - GP's are not trained in managing dental problems and are not indemnified for this. If you present to the practice with a dental problem we will ask you to see your dentist. If you are not registered with a dentist call NHS 111.

We ask you to arrive 5 minutes early for your appointments. If you arrive late the clinician may not see you. We are strict about this because lateness can impact other patients and their safety.

If you can’t attend an appointment, we ask you to cancel as soon as possible so it can be offered to someone else.

If you cancel with less than 30 minutes notice, you will be marked as a did not attend (DNA).

You can cancel by:

• Using the link in your reminder text message (up to 1hour prior to your appointment)
• Calling the surgery and selecting the options to cancel an appointment and leave a message on our mailbox.
• Emailing mosboroughhc@nhs.net

PLEASE NOTE – any queries left on the email or mailbox that do not relate to cancelling appointments will be deleted and unactioned.

The Health Centre is involved in training medical and nursing staff before and after their professional qualification. A Receptionist will inform you if a medical student is with the Doctor or Nurse at the time of your consultation and if you do not wish them to be present, please say so. It is perfectly acceptable for you to ask not to have a student present, and you will not be expected to justify your position.

We are also training GP registrars who are qualified doctors training to become GPs. You will be informed at the time of booking who you will be seeing for your appointment. As part of the ongoing training and assessment for the consultation skills of the GP registrars, patient consultations are occasionally videotaped. You will be informed on booking an appointment, and further information with consent forms will be available when you attend the practice. 

• If you are unable to attend work due to a health problem, a Med 3/Fit note can be requested. You will need to speak to a GP about the problem before a Med 3/Fit Note can be issued.
• If you are off work for an ongoing health problem and need an extension to the Med 3 you can send a request through the link on our website. Depending on when you last spoke to a GP regarding this, another appointment may be required to discuss the extension.
• If you are likely to need a Med 3/Fit note following a hospital admission or out patient appointment, please ask the doctor treating you in hospital to provide one before you leave.

The NHS takes failures to attend appointments very seriously. Last year alone we had over 1,200 wasted appointments.

Repeatedly failing to attend booked appointments are a significant waste of NHS resources and we have a policy in place that runs every 12 months to ensure this is reduced. Each did not attend is documented in your patient record. Please see our policy below:

1) After one DNA we will send you a text message.

2) After two DNAs, we will send you a letter.

3) After a third DNA we will arrange for you to meet with the practice manager, and we may remove you from the practice list.

If you feel you have been sent the above incorrectly, we are always happy to discuss it.