Noticeboard

COVID-19 is still with us and we must all remain vigilant and look after our community.  We would like to respectfully remind all our patients that access to the surgery building remains restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Please help us to all do our best to limit the spread of COVID-19.

  • Please DO NOT enter the surgery building unless you are attending an appointment.
  • Where possible, please attend any appointments alone.
  • Please do not arrive too early or too late for your appointment, please arrive as close to your appointment time as possible.
  • Please wear an appropriate face covering whilst in the surgery building
  • Please use the provided hand sanitiser on entering and exiting the surgery building
  • Please DO NOT attend your appointment if you are concerned that you or someone you have had contact with may be displaying symptoms of COVID-19 (a new continuous cough, fever or a lack of or change in your ability to smell or taste).

Thank you.  We're all in this together

How do I make an appointment at the practice?

Reviewed July 2023

To request any appointment whether it is a routine or an urgent same day appointment, patients should contact the practice by telephone.

All face to face appointments are 15 minutes long. This extra time is needed as the practice is seeing many patients with complex medical issues. Any patient, who requires to be seen face to face in the practice, will be seen.

Will anything else change when I telephone the practice?

Yes. Our medical receptionists have undergone formal training to signpost patients, if appropriate to do so, to community pharmacy for minor ailments. They are also trained to signpost patients to other healthcare professionals who work within the practice such as our mental health nurse, our physiotherapist, or our practice pharmacists.

It is NOT always a GP who is the right clinician to see as there are many other healthcare specialists who work within medical practices to help and support patients, however please allow us to reassure that if you do need to see a GP for your health concern, you will see a GP.

When you contact the practice, the receptionist will ask you for some brief information as to why you would like an appointment, and we would be grateful if you could help us by providing this brief information. You don’t have to provide it, but it will help and will allow our receptionists to direct you to the most appropriate person for your concern. All of the practice team are bound by strict confidentiality.

The practice has a mental health nurse, a CBT therapist, a first contact physiotherapist and practice pharmacists who all provide specialist advice and care in their field without the need for patients to speak with a GP. The practice has an Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) who has undertaken additional advanced training. Our ANP supports our GPs and can refer patients and is a prescriber as well. She can see a wealth of medical issues, so depending on what your health concern is; you may be offered an appointment with our ANP before a GP.

Why are surgery staff signposting me to a pharmacy for a minor ailment?

Patients should always consider whether or not they can safely manage a minor ailment at home first. The NHS Inform website also has a lot of self care advice for minor health concerns. Please visit www.nhsinform.scot for more information.

If you feel you cannot manage your minor ailment at home, a pharmacy is the first place you should go for advice. You do not usually need an appointment and can attend any pharmacy of your choice.

Community pharmacies offer a wealth of services to patients. One of those services is called Pharmacy First Scotland.

Pharmacy First Scotland is an NHS service provided by your community pharmacy. The scheme is available to all Scottish residents as long as you live in Scotland and are registered with a Scottish GP practice. Visitors to Scotland cannot use this service. Your local pharmacist or a trained member of the pharmacy team will discuss your minor ailment, give you self care advice and/or provide treatment / medicine (if you need it) free of charge to you under the Pharmacy First service. They may require to refer you to another healthcare professional such as your GP practice, a dentist, optometrist or another NHS service if they feel your condition needs further investigation or more specialist care. The practice will also provide a Nurse Practitioner led minor ailment service for any patients who are not suitable for Pharmacy First or are referred back to the practice.

NORTH GLEN TRIAGE SERVICE 

The practice offers a triage service for our patients, Monday to Friday between 8.30am and 10.00am. When calling our triage service, patients will either be; re-directed to their local community pharmacy in line with the NHS Pharmacy First scheme if appropriate to do so, or, you may be offered a face to face minor ailment appointment within 48 hours, or, you will be offered a triage call back with our Nurse Practitioner or an emergency same day appointment dependent on your clinical need.

Triage call back requests are accepted between 8.30am and 10.00am, Monday to Friday.

If you are receiving a triage call back, please ensure that you are available to receive this call back.  We cannot provide a specific time for your call back. 

 

 

 

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