Appointments

We offer choice in how and when you can access our services. This could be in person, by phone or online via Accurx.  

By working together, our team of skilled healthcare professionals will get you the help you need, when and how you need it.

Working together with local surgeries as a Primary Care Network we offer same day and pre-bookable appointments Monday – Friday 8am - 8pm and Saturdays 9am-5pm at a surgery near you.

Appointments are available with people working in a number of different roles alongside GPs that can help with your needs. They’re skilled healthcare professionals who can assess, diagnose, treat, prescribe, and refer. 

Alternatively, visit the local pharmacy for clinical advice on minor health concerns.

Appointments are being delivered face-to-face, by telephone, or using video calls and messaging to your mobile or computer – the practice team will assess what is most appropriate for you. If you have a preference about how to access care you can discuss it with the practice.

The safety of staff, patients and visitors remains the highest priority for the NHS. Everyone accessing or visiting health and care settings must continue to wear a face mask/covering (unless they are exempt) and follow physical/social distancing rules.

The infection prevention and control guidelines are therefore set to remain in place for all staff and visitors, and across all health and care settings and services, including hospitals, GP practices, dentists, optometrists and pharmacies to ensure patients and staff are protected.

Thank you for helping us to keep you and our staff safe. Together we can protect each other.

Further information is available in the full infection prevention control guidance.

Bankfield Surgery is committed to providing a safe, comfortable environment where patients and staff can be confident that best practice is being followed at all times and the safety of everyone is considered. 

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone for any intimate consultation, examination or procedure.  

Bankfield Surgery will endeavour to provide a chaperone; all our chaperones are fully trained members of staff.  On odd occasions providing a chaperone may not be possible; in this instance it may be necessary to change your appointment to another day.

Your healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations in accordance with our Chaperone Policy.

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.

We do offer appointments outside of our general opening hours, these are between 18:30 – 20:00 week days and 9:00 - 17:00 on Saturdays.

If you would like further information on the Enhanced Access service please speak with a member of our reception team.

Please note that these sessions will not be for emergencies, prescription orders/collection or other enquiries and it will not be possible to contact the surgery by telephone during this period.

Please attend your appointment on time, if you are late you may not be seen. If you are not seen you will not be able to rearrange your appointment until the next working day-except in the event of an medical emergency that requires immediate attention.

If you require an interpreter to attend with you when you see your Doctor please notify the receptionist and they will arrange this for you.

If you are unable to attend surgery and require a home visit please try and notify us by telephone or personal message before 10.00.

Please supply the full name and address of the patient(s) to be seen and enough information to suggest the urgency of the visit. This is the one occasion when the receptionist may need to know a little of the nature of the illness.

The receptionist will sometimes point out that urgent attention would be more quickly obtained by attendance at the surgery. In this they have our full backing, especially in the case of children and young adults. If you do require a home visit please telephone 01422 374662.

In the time taken for the doctor to do one home visit he could see three patients at the surgery. For this reason it is in the doctor's and the patient's best interests that, whenever possible, an effort is made to get down to the surgery. This does sometimes mean patients having to wait a while, but efforts are made to see people as soon as they arrive if their condition so dictates.

Guidelines have been drawn up by the national association of GP co-operatives on when a visit should and should not be requested. These are as follows:

GP Visit Recommended

1. Terminally ill patients.

2. The truly bed bound patients for whom travel to the surgery by car would cause a deterioration in their medical condition or unacceptable discomfort.

3. Severe breathlessness.

4. Severe haemorrhage.

5. Severe chest pain (suspected heart attack). Patients who have known heart problems and who usually have a "red card", should dial 999 and request an ambulance. This is important if the pain persists for ten minutes or more in spite of using relieving tablets or spray.

It must be understood that if a GP is engaged seeing patients in the surgery when an emergency arises elsewhere, it may be appropriate for an ambulance to be called immediately. The ambulance would be normally ordered by the surgery in such circumstances.

GP Visit Unusual

In most of these cases to visit would be an inappropriate use of a GP’s time.

Common symptoms of childhood, such as fevers, coughs and colds, earache, diarrhoea / vomiting and most cases of abdominal pain. Childhood infections, such as measles and chicken pox and patients with rashes, should normally be fit enough to attend surgery. We usually accommodate such patients in a side room, to avoid spread of infection. It is not usually harmful to take a child with a fever outside. These children may not be fit to travel by bus or to walk long distances, but car transport is frequently available from friends, relatives or local taxi firms.

It is not the doctor's job to arrange such transport.

Adults with common problems such as cough, sore throat, influenza, back pain and abdominal pain are also safe to travel to the surgery.

Common problems in the elderly such as poor mobility, joint pain and general malaise would be best treated at the surgery.