Appointments

Contact us with eConsult

You can also use our online consultation service where you will receive a reply within 3 working days. Please do not use this service if you know your condition requires an examination.

Urgent Appointments

Urgent appointments and urgent telephone consultations are available on the same day.  Please note this may not be with the person of your choice, but may be with another Practitioner or the Duty Doctor.

To request an urgent appointment (Monday to Friday) during opening hours:

• phone us The Bridges Medical Practice 01305 774411 or Littlemoor Surgery 01305 813040

We offer both Telephone consultation appointments and Face to Face appointments.

When booking your appointment you will be asked to give some details of the nature of your problem to ensure you are booked the most appropriate appointment.

We will remind you of your appointment by text messaging, unless you tell us you don't want this service.

Routine Appointments

To request a routine appointment in advance during opening hours:

• phone us The Bridges Medical Practice 01305 774411 or The Littlemoor Surgery 01305 813040
• Use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App) 
• We also offer an online appointment booking service (Airmid). To register for this you will need to provide photo ID at reception.

When you get in touch we will ask what you need help with.

We will use your answers to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or healthcare professional to help you.

We will remind you of your appointment by text messaging, unless you tell us you don't want this service.

Self Care

For some conditions you may be able to self care so please use the following websites before contacting us:

The NHS website - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Get help for your symptoms - NHS 111

Home :: Healthier Together (what0-18.nhs.uk)  For children.

You can book your nurse appointments in the same way as you book doctor appointments. However, the receptionist will ask what your appointment is for, to enable us to book you an appointment of the correct length.

If you have been asked to attend an appointment by the hospital - perhaps to have some wound care or stitches removed, please allow us sufficient notice to provide you with an appointment. 

Telephone Consultations

You can book to have a telephone consultation with a doctor. We cannot specify a time the doctor will call you but it will be at some point in the day.

It is important that the surgery has an up to date address and daytime telephone number so that we are able to contact you.

Available specifically for people who work and find it difficult to attend the surgery during normal surgery hours.

• The Bridges Medical Centre has extended hours until 19.30 on Monday evenings.
• Littlemoor Surgery has extended until hours until 19.30 on Wednesday evenings.

Appointment Duration

Appointments are normally booked for 10 minutes duration. Some consultations/procedures take longer than 10 minutes e.g. post-natal examination, coil fitting, dressings, immunisations. The doctor or nurse will advise you if you are to make a longer appointment with them. Our receptionists may ask you the nature of your appointment to ensure the correct appointment duration is booked.

Please do not present a list of problems to the doctor that will obviously take longer than one appointment. Your consultation may have to end before you get to the most important problem on your list and you may be asked to book another appointment. 

One Appointment – One Patient

Please understand that each person wishing to have an appointment will need their own appointment. Trying to fit more than one person into an appointment leads to a rushed and unsatisfactory appointment and also is unfair on the patients following you. Let us know if more than one person in the family needs to be seen. We can then give each person their own appointment.

If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else.

To Cancel Your Appointment

• use your NHS Account (through the NHS website or NHS App)
• phone us on 01305 774411 or 01305 813040 Monday to Friday from 8.30am
• reply CANCEL to your appointment reminder text message

Late Arrivals

• Less than 10 minutes late and you will be seen, but the duration of your appointment may need to be reduced to be fair to patients following
• If you are more than 10 minutes late you will be deemed to have missed your appointment and asked to re-book.

If you need help when we are closed

If you need medical help now, use NHS 111 online or call 111.

NHS 111 online is for people aged 5 and over. Call 111 if you need help for a child under 5.

Call 999 in a medical or mental health emergency. This is when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.

Please tell us:

• If there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to see
• If you would prefer to consult with the doctor or nurse by phone, face-to-face, by video call or by text or email
• If you need a chaperone
• If you need an interpreter
• If you have any other access or communication needs

Home Visits

Whilst we encourage our patients to come to the surgery, where we have the proper equipment and facilities available, we do appreciate this is not always possible. In this respect, if you do need a home visit, you can help us by calling reception before 10:00am.

You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed. Please bear this in mind and be prepared to provide suitable details to enable the doctor to schedule house calls.

Our Emergency Care Practitioner and Advanced Clinical Practitioners also visit patients at home.  They are very experienced and may visit instead of a GP.

You can also be visited at home by a Community Nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.

GP Registrar

We are pleased to be welcoming trainee GPs (known as GP registrars) into the practice. They are fully qualified doctors who have worked in hospitals for several years but who have chosen general practice as a career and who will be gaining valuable experience by being based in our practice. At all times they will be closely supervised and provide the same standard of care as the other doctors in the practice. If we would like to use your consultation for teaching purposes, you will be asked beforehand and you may, of course, decline.

Other Doctors in Training

We may also be welcoming other doctors in training into the practice. They are fully qualified doctors gaining experience of general practice to take our skills into their future careers. At all times, they will be closely supervised and provide the expected standard of care.

6th Form Students

Local A level students wishing to enter medicine as a career are increasingly being required to gain close experience of surgeries. We wish to support these students and on occasions we may ask that they sit in on your consultations to learn. Patients will be told of this when they book their appointment and are very welcome to decline and can also decline should they change their mind on attendance at the surgery. We fully understand that some consultations would be inappropriate to have an A level student present.