Appointments
The Reception Desk is able to receive telephone calls between:
Risca - 08.00 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. on 01633 613131
Cwmfelinfach - 8.00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on 01495 200343
Surgeries run every morning and afternoon, Monday to Friday (except that our Cwmfelinfach branch is closed on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons).
Routine appointments are for 10 minutes. If you think you need more time than this, please mention this to the Receptionist.
Please use the patient touch screens to check-in for appointment upon arrival. Enter the first 3 letters of your surname along with your date of birth to confirm your appointment time. Or report to Reception if you have any problems.
We try to run to time as much as possible but inevitably surgery will sometimes run late due to complicated consultations and emergencies etc. Please accept our apologies if you have to wait. Do let Reception know if you have been waiting longer than 20minutes.
Appointment System
We operate a pre-bookable appointment for 28 days in advance. Hopefully this will be of advantage to working people. Once these appointments have been booked all other appointments are book on the day appointments.
The overwhelming majority of our patients find the system of great benefit
However, we still have an exceptional high number of patients who fail to attend for booked appointments.
How can you help to maximise the benefits of the system?
- Patient touch screens available at reception to check-in upon arrival. Please enter first 3 letters of surname along with date of birth to confirm appointment time.
- Please do not telephone the surgery with routine queries at busy times of day, particularly first thing in the morning.
- Don't waste appointments for self correcting ailments such as coughs, colds, sore throats etc.
- Don't waste appointments by failing to turn up after they have been booked. Note that this is audited and persistent offenders could be removed from our list.
- Wherever possible, please be flexible with the choice of doctor. Our GP's will confirm that there are comparatively few occasions when a patient has to see the same doctor at all times.
- Remember that we can never guarantee that all patients will be able to see the doctor of their choice, when they want to see them.
- Please arrive on time. If you are late you may be asked to wait or make another appointment.
- Please do not squeeze other family members into your appointment.
- Please do not save up a long list of problems for one appointment.
Lack of Continuity
This is regularly raised by patients and is more of an issue in larger practices where it is more difficult to co-ordinate GP sessions. However, whilst this is perceived to be of importance to individuals, the partners would like to stress that there is little need to see the same doctor all the time in most cases.
In the past when the patients’ paper notes were used for consultations, a lot of time could be wasted ploughing through previous records and letters and consequently a GP’s personal knowledge of a patient would probably have been of use. However, now that all records are computerised, details of all previous consultations, test results, hospital correspondence etc. are available to all our GPs in seconds which makes this less relevant. Furthermore, if a GP feels there is need for a particular consultation to be followed up personally, he/she has the ability to book the appointment at a suitable date in the future anyway. Also, patients who are seriously ill or have specific needs are discussed in practice meetings so that everyone is aware of the issues and may even be allocated a specific GP if felt appropriate. Consequently the above ensures that continuity is provided if it is clinically necessary.
We have, however, reviewed the allocation of GPs at our separate sites and have simplified this so that patients will become more aware of where each doctor is working each day
We should point out that booking appointments with any doctor also improves access for all. It reduces delays or long waits in the waiting room and reduces the time Receptionists have to spend on the telephone, blocking lines while they try to find appointments.