Appointments

Routine GP appointments

  • All our GP consultations have now returned to normal. Appointments can be chosen by the patient as either a face-to-face or telephone consultation.
  • All GP appointments are 10 minutes long each and for one patient only. Please request a double appointment when you speak to reception if you would like more time with the GP to discuss complex or multiple problems.
  • Additional “enhanced access” GP appointments are available outside of our usual opening hours.

Urgent same-day appointments 

  • Morning requests for emergency appointments will be triaged by the reception staff and nursing team. Problems requiring immediate attention will always be dealt with urgently.
  • Please be prepared to give information about your illness to the receptionist or doctor so that the degree of urgency can be assessed.
  • You should expect to receive a phone call back from a triage nurse or duty doctor although you will not be given a specific time slot. If they need to see you face-to-face the clinician will arrange this with you on the phone.

Home visit requests

  • Home visits are available for patients who are house-bound or too ill to get to the surgery. Please ring before 10.30am to request a home visit.
  • Home visits do take a lot of time so the doctor may ring you back to assess the urgency so that the most serious conditions can be dealt with first.

Booking appointments online

  • Routine GP appointments can be booked online by patients with online access already set-up.
  • The online system does not display all of the available appointment times, so if you cannot find a convenient date/time for an appointment please contact reception.

Cancelling your appointment

  • Please give as much notice as possible if you cannot attend your appointment, so that the slot can be used for someone else.

Skype / Facetime consultations

  • Skype/Facetime consultations are being offered by Dr Simpson as an alternative to telephone consultation calls.
  • Skype creates a secure channel to allow the flow of video and voice from one computer to another. Each computer has to install the Skype software provided at http://www.skype.com and you have to have access to the internet to use it.
  • When you take the call, make sure you are out of earshot, are at home or in a secluded environment, and are aware of the potential risks of others hearing about your conversation with your GP. If possible, try and use your microphone and headset when answering your call as this improves the quality of the consultation.
  • The GP will only conduct Skype/Facetime calls in a secluded environment where only they are present.

Enhanced Access

Our GPs are participating in the Stroud Cotswold PCN Enhanced Access scheme, a project aimed at improving patient access to primary care services.

  • Extra GP clinics will be held during normal hours, and additional appointments will be available between 18:30-20:00 every weekday evening and on Saturday mornings.
  • The GP surgeries involved in this scheme are Minchinhampton Surgery, Beeches Green Surgery, Frithwood Surgery, Painswick Surgery, and Rowcroft Medical Centre.
  • All appointments will be booked by either our reception staff or GPs.