Bourtreehill Medical Practice :: Using the Practice

Using the Practice

This section of the website is about using the practice on a day to day basis. It covers:

Registering, Appointments and Home Visits
Messages for Doctors and Nurses
Out of Hours Services
Prescribing
Samples and Test Results
Young People
When Things go Wrong
Our Policy on Drug Misuse
Travel Vaccination Planning

For detailed lists of practice services please go to the relevant main section.

REGISTERING, APPOINTMENTS AND HOME VISITS

REGISTERING WITH THE PRACTICE

The practice list is currently open to patients to register permanently or as temporary residents from Bourtreehill North and South, Broomlands, Girdle Toll, Lawthorn, Dreghorn and Perceton. You will be invited to complete a new patient questionnaire in order to provide us with important information. Please fill it out carefully.

YOUR CHOICE OF DOCTOR AND YOUR RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

When you register with the practice for GP services, your registration is with the practice and not with a specific doctor. You can express a preference for a particular doctor to treat you either generally or for a particular condition, and we will record that you have made that wish. We will endeavour to comply with any reasonable request, but in practical terms any of our doctors can treat you equally well for most conditions, and they will all guide you towards the best treatment available. Our information booklet and the website also contain a number of references to your rights and responsibilities. We see this as building the everyday partnership with you for the use of GP services.

APPOINTMENTS

The practice computerised appointment system offers a range of 10 minute face to face and 5 minute telephone consultations with doctors and nurses every week Monday to Friday both am and pm, except where cover has been prearranged (such as on Public Holidays) with NHS Ayrshire Doctors on Call.

Appointments at the surgery can be booked in person or by telephone.

It is practice policy that we make every effort for you to be seen within one working day of your request, unless you specify to see a particular clinician or wish to book further in advance.

FOR ALL APPOINTMENTS WITH DOCTOR OR PRACTICE NURSE PLEASE CONTACT THE PRACTICE IN PERSON OR CALL ON 01294 211993

Appointment times vary slightly each day, but generally run from 0845 (8.45am) to 1720 (5.20pm) with appropriate breaks. Telephone consultation times also vary but reception staff are happy to offer all the available alternatives. Doors are open and reception is available 0830 (8.30am) to 1730 (5.30pm) Monday to Friday except on public holidays as above. Prescriptions are not normally issued between 1230 (12.30pm) and 1400 (2.00pm) due to staff limitations.

HOUSE CALLS OR “HOME VISITS”

The doctors will normally attend for house calls at a patient’s registered address if in their judgement a medical condition makes it necessary. Please try to call 01294 211993 before 1000 (10.00am) if you think you must have a house call. Reception will take some details to help the “on call” doctor to prioritise, and the doctor may call you back before leaving to see you. Each house call takes the same time as seeing 4 or 5 patients at the surgery.

Keep it or Cancel It!

We are pleased to hear from you, but not 10 minutes after you have missed your appointment! Over 1 week of a clinician’s time is wasted every month because of simple failures to attend. Please cancel any unneeded consultations as soon as you know you must – others are desperate for the doctor’s time. For the benefit of all, it is practice policy that, if you fail to attend 3 appointments in the space of a year, or if you fail to attend for longer appointments amounting to 30 minutes in a year, or if you fail to attend any appointment soon after joining us, we will contact you to advise you of this and how this breaks down the special relationship you need to have with your doctor. Practice policy is also that further failures to attend are monitored, and will mostly result in patients being invited to seek GP services elsewhere. Our letters are necessarily direct and not well received by some. However, we stand by our efforts to deal with this major problem as our access is better than any other practice in the local area and also in the interests of the vast majority of our patients.

If there's more than 1 working day to go before your appointment, you can cancel it by clicking HERE to email us. Just give us your name, date of birth, when the appointment is for and who with.

If you fail to attend for an appointment and call us the same day for another, we reserve the right to ask you to pre-book that next appointment at least 2 days ahead unless you give good clinical reasons for a higher priority.

Never assume an unwanted appointment on the system has been cancelled on your behalf just because you come in for something else in the meantime.

...And finally, just to highlight how big the problem is, over 41 hours of GP and nurse time was lost in July 2008 due to failures to attend.

Special Requirements

Let us know if you need extra time with the doctor for something more involved, or if you are being treated for an ongoing condition for which you need to see the same doctor over again. Also, if we have not seen you for 3 years or more, (12 months if you are over 75), we will ask you about your general health in order to update our records.

What’s an Emergency?

When we are exceptionally busy, we may ask you to come and wait at the surgery if you have advised us that you must be seen. In these circumstances our policy is that you cannot insist on seeing the doctor of your choice and the doctor will only deal with your urgent matter. Please note that in our experience a large percentage of patients who think they needed an urgent appointment that same day could have taken an ordinary booking.

MESSAGES

YOUR MESSAGES FOR GPs AND PRACTICE NURSES

The practice can take your request for a message to be left for a GP or Practice Nurse. Please call us on 01294 211993 by 1030 (10.30am). Your message will be inserted into the computer system, and although it cannot be guaranteed exactly when you will be contacted, the doctors and Practice Nurses often make these return calls during breaks at lunchtime or later in the afternoon. For Community Nurses or other services please make contact via Community Reception on 01294 215151.

OUT OF HOURS

OUT OF HOURS GP SERVICE AT NIGHT, WEEKENDS AND PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

The practice is closed between 1730 (5.30pm) in the evenings and 0830 (8.30 am) the following weekday morning. We are not open (except for special clinics as announced) on Saturdays, Sundays, Public Holidays and training afternoons on Tuesdays as announced where cover has been prearranged with NHS Ayrshire and Arran Doctors on Call (NHS ADOC). The Health Centre may open briefly on some Public Holidays for NHS community services but these arrangements again will be made known to patients attending certain clinics on those days. For full details of closed dates please see the relevant section under “News” here.

During all closed periods, if you call the surgery a message will give you the telephone contact number for the NHS24 out of hours service which is as follows:

08454 242424

and whose website is:
www.nhs24.com

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I CALL THE OUT OF HOURS SERVICE?

You will be answered by a call handler who will help to assess your need before deciding best what to do. Telephone calls to the services are recorded for security and training purposes.

Please remember that using the out of hours GP service is also about you helping us to serve as many people as we can in the most appropriate and time efficient way. Please bear this in mind, and use the service ONLY if you genuinely feel you cannot wait to see your own GP. The out of hours GP service is arranged by NHS Ayrshire and Arran, whose contact details are provided on this website in the basic details section, or whose website can be found HERE.

PRESCRIBING

REPEAT PRESCRIBING – STANDARDS THAT WE AIM TO ACHIEVE

Our system allows you to order repeat prescriptions by:

  1. Using our online prescribing facility for repeat medication on your printed list ONLY by clicking HERE.
  2. Telephoning the practice with your requirement; help us by reading from the existing printed list on your prescription.
  3. Handing in or posting to us your prescription list printed on your prescription, ticked to show the items you require.
PLANNING AHEAD, AND WASTE!

It is vital that you plan ahead for your prescribing needs, remembering about public holidays, which can sometimes mean a four-day break in the surgery service, and remembering your own absences from the area, which may affect the supply of your medications.

Please do everything you can do avoid wasting prescription medicines. All wasted medicines waste money, and even correctly returned medicines cannot be re-used. Only order what you NEED; the cost of wasted medicines in Ayrshire and Arran ALONE each year is an estimated £1 million. Just think what could be done with that money!

HOW LONG WILL MY PRESCRIPTION TAKE TO BE READY?

We aim to provide a completed repeat prescription for issue from the practice within 2 working days of your request, i.e. NOT counting weekends and public holidays, and this standard of supply is monitored by reception. Please let us know if we do not appear to meet this standard without giving you a reason.

You may collect your prescription at the Health Centre, it can be made available at a chemist with whom you have made an arrangement, or it can be posted to you on supply of an SAE with your request. For patients who collect their prescriptions from the Bourtreehill chemist, the prescriptions are transferred to the chemist just once a day between 1000 and 1030 (10.00am and 10.30am). This means that the prescription may not be in the chemist until the morning of the 3rd day, an example being that a prescription ordered Monday evening is ready for issue from the practice on Wednesday evening, but may not be in the chemist ready to process until Thursday morning.

SAMPLES AND TEST RESULTS

HOW YOU CAN HELP

All specimens and samples for tests must be provided in a suitable container that we can give you along with a name and address label and instructions.

When you hand the sample in, it MUST be marked CLEARLY with your:

NAME AND DATE OF BIRTH
If these details are on your label – please use it. If not – write it in.

DATE OF THE SAMPLE AND REASON FOR THE SPECIMEN
Must be written in. Please use CAPITALS.

Reception is not authorised to handle samples directly. Please follow reception’s instructions EXACTLY when handing in your sample/specimen.
AVAILABILITY OF RESULTS

You will be given an indication of when to contact the practice to check on the results of your test. Those involving hospital consultants can take considerably longer than other routine tests – up to 21 days. When results are in hand they can be accessed from your records between 1100 (11.00 am) and 1730 (5.30 pm) daily, provided doctor has reviewed them.

CERVICAL SCREENING (SMEARS)

Results of cervical smears are posted to patients normally within about 3 weeks of your test and…

A full, confidential family planning service is provided, normally with one of the Practice Nurses. You can also ask to see a Practice Nurse or GP about any facet of women’s health, including advice about breast examination and the menopause. A urine sample is often requested.

YOUNG PEOPLE

A special message for teenagers: if you are interested in or worried about CONTRACEPTION, EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION, PREGNANCY CONCERNS or SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES, please make a CONFIDENTIAL appointment with one of the Practice Nurses who can give advice, including addresses for appropriate web sites, and telephone numbers for useful contacts.

Further information is available HERE (“Are You Thinking” – Tel: 0800 282930), HERE (Family Planning Association – Tel: 0141 576 5088) or HERE (Ayrshire Sexual Health)

WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

YOUR VOICE – PROBLEMS AND COMPLAINTS – PATIENT GROUP

SUBMIT A COMMENT

We welcome general comments, and can normally resolve most difficulties very easily, aiming to do so within the practice, listening and improving where we can. The Practice Manager is the practice complaints officer, but any of the reception staff will assist with handling a problem if you wish to tell us about it formally, which you must do within 6 months of the event or learning about it. Please tell us about significant difficulties, by writing to the Practice Manager, as soon as possible in order that we can investigate and tell you our findings.

If you complain to us, our target is to have completed local resolution of the matter within 20 working days (effectively 4 weeks), which will include providing you with a full response. However, most issues will normally be dealt with within a week. If a matter is likely to become involved or difficult, we will keep in close contact with you to keep you informed.

If we cannot resolve the matter locally, patients (and in certain circumstances the practice) have the right to take the matter up with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman; we can provide details.

The practice has a Patient Group to represent the views of all patients regarding our services. Further details are available from the Practice Manager and in our current newsletter available from reception.

OUR VOICE – ABUSE, THREATS AND VIOLENCE

Practice policy is linked to that of NHS Scotland, being one of zero tolerance to verbal abuse that makes a staff member fear for their safety, or the threat of or actual physical violence. This protection applies to all staff working at Bourtreehill. Any patient who engages in such conduct will be removed from the practice patient list immediately, the police will always be involved, and our NHS colleagues will be consulted with a view to preventing any further use of other Health Centre facilities.

MISUSING DRUGS - OUR POLICY

If there is any infringement of the above your continued registration with this practice will be reviewed.

TRAVEL VACCINATIONS

Business or pleasure abroad? Either way, please plan well ahead for that trip to far flung places. When you think travel, accommodation and passports, you also need to think about disease protection which is just as important. You must contact us, complete and return a travel vaccination planning form at least 8 weeks before your trip starts. When you return the form, you will be given a nurse appointment by reception which will be in sufficient time for immunisation to take effect. The nurse will review your protection requirement on your behalf, and contact you if special immunisations, not available from the practice, are required.

This service is not part of our contractual requirement, and although basic immunisations will be given free of charge to you, we do request and require that you plan your trip in good time as above, and we cannot respond to "urgent" or "in an emergency" requests for late bookings. We also reserve the right to deny you this extra service if you or your employer fail to plan business commitments abroad in good time.