Urgent problems

If you feel your problem is urgent for the same day, please TELEPHONE the surgery at 08.30 AM and request an URGENT appointment. Our team will ask you more about the condition. Our duty doctor will be helping our admin team to decide if your problem needs an urgent appointment. If so, you will have a phone call the same day with an appropriate clinician. If they feel you need to be seen, they will arrange that directly with you.

Non-urgent problems

If your problem is non-urgent, please do not ring the surgery for an appointment. Please complete an online triage form accessible from our website or via the NHS app:

Via website Please go https://florey.accurx.com/p/M81039

OR visit: https://malverntown-pcn.co.uk/whiteacres-medical-centre then select “I’d like to book an appointment” then “I’d like to have an online consultation”

Via the NHS app Click on “messages” in the bottom right of the screen > Ask your GP surgery a question > Ask your GP for medical advice The triage form will be reviewed by an experienced GP within 24 working hours.

The more information that you give us, the easier it will be for us to offer you the most appropriate help. Following this you might be: • Offered a face-to-face or telephone appointment with an appropriate clinician (which may include professionals such as a physiotherapist) • Given advice by text message • Signposted to another more appropriate service e.g. a community pharmacy, a minor injuries unit, A+E If you are unable to complete an online triage, then please call the surgery and one of our team will complete one on your behalf by asking you some questions. We appreciate your kindness to our team as they try to help you.

Please note, the surgery may temporarily suspend access to online enquiries if we reach our capacity for the day.

Appointments

Booking an appointment at Whiteacres Medical Centre

How to book an appointment.

 

Routine GP appointments can be pre-booked - these are available one week in advance. Appointments become available at 9am for the same day a week later (for example, appointments for Monday become available at 9am the Monday before. These can be booked online using the Patient Access or NHS App buttons above, or by ringing the surgery.

We also have a number of GP appointments that become available each morning to be booked that day. If you’re in need of one of these appointments, then please call us as soon as the line opens at 8:30am. Once all our appointments are fully booked for the day, we will continue to offer our online consultation platform for non-urgent queries and will get back to you within 1 working day.

If you think you have a problem that is urgent for the same day and we have run out of appointments, our Reception team will discuss it with the Duty Doctor for the day to decide the appropriate action.

Why can’t I be seen face to face?

The simple answer is that you can, but in order to manage the sheer number of patients asking for our help, we are continuing to triage everything initially over the telephone. We want to help you and we know that this does not suit everyone, but we wanted to explain to you that this system most definitely has some benefits for you. These benefits are as follows:

  • Increased capacity to consult with patients – by triaging patients it allows us to offer many more people the opportunity to get our help on a day to day basis. It would simply not be possible to see every patient who requests an appointment face to face.

  • Increased flexibility of timings – if we or you feel that you should be seen after an initial telephone call, we can work around you as much as possible to provide a face to face appointment time that suits you. This would not be possible in a purely timed face to face appointment system like we used to have – you would be offered what slots were available.

  • Tailoring the length of appointment to the complexity of the problem – lots of patient problems are very straightforward and very quick to deal with. A standard 10 minute appointment for some problems is excessive. Many of our patients however have much more complex needs including complex mental health, chronic disease, cancer and palliative care needs. The system of a 10 minute face to face appointment for everyone does not take account of these needs. By triaging over the phone, we can deal with your problem quickly and efficiently if it is straight forward, or spend the time that it takes for a more complex problem without this impacting on a waiting room full of patients.

Home Visits

Home visits are available for patients who are either housebound or unable to visit the Surgery due to illness. All home visits will be organised by a clinician, with more serious or urgent visits taking priority. If possible, please call the Surgery before 10:30am if you require a home visit, to give the clinician time to plan the visits.

Specialised Clinics

These can be booked in advance by telephone or by visiting reception. Services provided by the practice nurses include:

  • Asthma and COPD Clinics

  • Diabetic Clinics

  • Coronary Heart Disease Monitoring

  • Cervical Smear Tests

  • Family Planning Checks and Advice

  • Travel Advice and Immunisations

  • Wound-care, Dressings and Removal of stitches

Please tell the receptionist which service you require and she will book you with the appropriate nurse. For more information on our clinics and services, click the button below.

Cancellations.

Please always let us know if you don’t wish to take up your appointment. Even if it is at the last minute, we can always fill it. We understand that you may now feel better or something else has cropped up and we are happy to rearrange… But please tell us!

You can cancel by calling 01684 577029.

Please note that we do record all incidences of not turning up, and we will be in touch if you miss an appointment. We do reserve the right to ask you to leave the practice list if you won’t help us to help you by keeping to your appointments - as missed appointments cost the NHS money, and make it harder for the rest of our local community to access appointments with us.

Need help urgently?

Patients with urgent requirements will always be seen on the same day—but if you have an emergency you don’t think is appropriate for us, or we are closed, you should call the following numbers:

999

Patients with very serious or life-threatening health conditions, such as chest pain, severe bleeding or loss of consciousness, should phone 999 without delay.

NHS 111

Patients who are unsure whether to visit A&E for their condition, or have an urgent medical need outside of our opening hours, should call NHS 111.