Our Appointment System

Routine Appointments

All routine surgeries are by appointment and can be made by telephone or in person.

If you are unable to attend for your appointment, please let us know so that we can offer this to another patient.

When booking your appointment, you will be asked to provide a reason so that our reception team can signpost you to the most appropriate source of help.

Waiting Lists

At Donnington Medical Partnership we are continually trying to find new and innovative ways to enhance the services we offer to our patients. 
To improve continuity of care, we are currently trialling a new system for the booking of routine GP appointments. 
If your registered/ requested GP does not have any future appointments available in the diary, reception will offer to add you to the GP’s waiting list.  This means rather than having to call back when the appointments come online, you will be contacted via text with an appointment as soon as one becomes available. 
Please note, where possible, we will try to accommodate specific requests, such as morning or afternoon, or specific days.
If you do not wish to be added to the waiting list you can book with an alternative GP.

Emergency Appointments

We run an Acute Emergency Hub Monday - Friday from 8.30am-11.30am for patients whose problem cannot wait for a routine appointment. 

All appointments are triaged over the phone by a clinician in the first instance. You will be asked to provide a reason for the appointment, this is needed to help us prioritise care

Our emergency hub is provided by our Primary Care Network which is rotated over 3 sites:

• Donnington Health Centre
• The Leys Health Centre
• Temple Cowley Health Centre

If the clinician needs to assess you in person, you will be required to attend which ever site is hosting the Acute Hub on that particular day.

Please note that if our emergency hub reaches it’s full capacity for the day we may ask you to call 111.

Urgent appointments are not for repeat prescriptions, fitness for work certificates or signing forms.

Timing

We encourage all patients to arrive on time for appointments. We try not to keep patients waiting and operate on a set time schedule, which allows 10 minutes for each appointment. If you arrive late for your appointment it means that other patients will have to wait longer.

With regret, if you arrive more than 10 minutes late you will have missed your appointment and will need to rearrange. If it is medically urgent you may be able to wait until the end of surgery.

Why does the Receptionist need to know what’s wrong with me?

It is not a case of the receptionists being nosey!

The reception staff are members of the practice team and it has been agreed they should ask patients ‘why they need to be seen’.

Reception staff are trained to ask certain questions in order to ensure that you receive:

• The most appropriate medical care
• From the most appropriate health professional
• At the most appropriate time.

Receptionists are asked to collect brief information from patients:

1. To help doctors prioritise house visits and phone calls
2. To ensure that all patients receive the appropriate level of care
3. To direct patients to see the nurse or other health professional rather than a doctor where appropriate.
    

Reception staff, like all members of the team, are bound by confidentiality rules

• Any information given by you is treated strictly confidentially.
• The Practice would take any breach of confidentiality very seriously and deal with accordingly.
• You can ask to speak to a receptionist in private away from reception.
• However if you feel an issue is very private and do not wish to say what this is then this will be respected.

General practice training

We are privileged to be recognised as a training practice, which means that each year we have with us qualified doctors who are doing their specialist training in General Practice. You are free to make your appointment with him or her. Sometimes, and only if you agree, the consultation may be recorded on video as a teaching aid. You may ask for it to be wiped at the end of the consultation. It will be used only for training and will always be destroyed after 12 months.

Medical student teaching

For much of the year we receive Oxford University medical students to teach them about General Practice. This attachment is a very important part of their training. If you would prefer the student not to be present during a consultation, please tell the receptionist.