Appointments
In an emergency (e.g. severe chest pain, sudden disabling breathlessness, symptoms of a stroke, collapse or severe injury) please telephone the emergency services on 999.
See our new page "Making the most of your appointment" for hints and tips on how the get the best out of your consultations.
If you are unsure if you need an appointment or discussion with a clinician, consider submitting a PATCHS request first. These are generally responded to within one working day. If we do need to see or speak to you after reviewing the PATCHS information, we'll get in touch to make arrangements.
If you know that you need to speak to a clinician, please ring the surgery on 0151 3176244 to speak to a Care Navigator who will ask a few questions to determine the suitable person for you to consult with (i.e. doctor, nurse, clinical pharmacist or physiotherapist) and book the appointment for you. Please do tell the Care Navigator what they need to know - their questions allow them to book you in to the most suitable clinician for your problem, and they are bound by the same duty of confidentiality as our clinicians. A doctor is not always the best person to help you, and the Care Navigators with ensure you speak to the person who is.
Many problems are suitable for discussion over a telephone or video call, saving you an unnecessary trip to the surgery, although if it is obvious that an examination will be needed, or your preference is to come in, you will be asked to attend for a face-to-face appointment. If you are booked for a telephone or video call, if the clinician subsequently determines that you need to be seen, they will arrange to see you in person.
Please note that we are no longer offering "routine" appointments bookable in advance, you simply ring on the day that you wish to be seen regardless of the nature of the problem. However, please bear in mind that you will need to ring before 13:00, and if the appointments for that day have already been allocated to other patients then you will be asked to call back the following working day unless it is medically urgent and cannot safely wait.
Using technology to improve access
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, like all other GP practices, we rapidly adapted to a telephone triage model. Throughout the pandemic we always saw patients face-to-face when clinically indicated (and we are aware that there were rumours in the community that we were not seeing people, but these were erroneous), however these face-to-face appointments were only following an initial assessment over the telephone.
We have been dealing with the majority of requests for clinician advice the same day, and continue to do so for the most part. In the past a routine appointment might have been a month (or more) away in the future.
Our experience over the past two years has shown us that the majority of GP-patient contacts involve talking, and much of the time it is not necessary for the clinician to examine the patient. This is because so many consultations are either follow-ups to a known issue (so the examinations have taken place previously, and don't need repeating every time), or perhaps relate to mental health, or a discussion about medication, for example.
Furthermore, switching to this telephone-first method has produced a number of other positive by-products:
- We have avoided a waiting room full of unwell people sitting together in close contact. The pandemic has made it obvious that this is a sensible thing to try and avoid, and on reflection there was probably always some cross-infection from people with viral illnesses passing that on to other patients who were there for something else.
- People in work, looking after children, or with limited mobility or transport, don't now need to take an hour or so out of their day (or that of a relative, friend or neighbour) to drive to us, find somewhere on the busy road to park, wait in the waiting room (consider point 1), be seen for their 10-15 minute appointment, and then drive back. All of which is even less fun when it's raining or snowing outside. Instead the patient can take a call from the clinician wherever they are. This is much more convenient, particularly if the clinician is running behind due to complicated preceding consultations.
- Transportation of patients to and from appointments is a major contributor to the NHS's carbon footprint and healthcare-related journeys account for 3.5% of all road travel in this country. Eliminating unnecessary journeys will result in a reduction in emissions, which will improve everyone's health. (To read more about what we're doing to reduce our environmental impact, see our new page called greener practice.)
- Some of our doctors are able to work from home for some of their sessions. In addition to reducing travel (see above) this has also freed-up one of our clinical rooms for the First Contact Physio service.
We do appreciate that some of our patients will feel that the traditional model of coming in for a face-to-face chat with the doctor is the only way to have a "proper" appointment. However, a telephone appointment still gives the patient an allocated period of time to discuss their care with their doctor (arguably more so, as the doctor can type whilst talking, and there is no walking to/from the waiting room), and brings numerous other advantages as described above. Therefore whilst the choice of consultation is now back with the patient, it is our recommendation that video and telephone consultations should be the default way of consulting with your doctor, with face-to-face appointments only if clinically necessary.
As always, we welcome feedback from our patients, and if you would like to voice your opinion about the appointments system, please consider contacting or joining our patient participation group.
Appointment types
Click on the buttons below to learn more about our different types of appointment.
Telephone is now the default consultation method with our clinicians. If your query is in relation to an ongoing problem or recent consultation you've had, please mention to the Care Navigator which doctor it was with as, if they are available, it is best to speak to them for continuity.
If the doctor or nurse determines that they need to examine you after your call, they will invite you down to the surgery.
Please ensure we have the correct telephone number for you.
Video consultations are now well established at the practice. Obviously, these appointments are not suitable if you have a problem which will require the doctor to physically examine you, but for many other problems these have been working very well.
There are a couple of different ways of doing the video consultations, so have a look at our dedicated video consultation page to see if you think this type of consultation will be suitable for you, and for some tips on how to get the most out of them.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, and a switch to telephone by default, and we have been able to speak to most patients the same day, even for routine matters. These are still full appointments with your doctor or nurse, but with a number of advantages over the traditional model of asking patients to come in to the surgery, as described above. Please call the surgery by telephone to book an appointment.
If you're not sure if you need an appointment, or are just seeking some advice, consider submitting an eConsult. If the clinician determines that we need to speak to or examine you, we will arrange that with you.
If you need an appointment with one of our nurses, for example for review of your diabetes, COPD or a smear test, these can be booked in the same way.
Extended hours
We offer four hours of appointments outside the core opening hours of 08:00-18:30. These are mix of Nurse, Healthcare Assistant (HCA) and online GP appointments. Our nurse and HCA will see their normal appointments, and GPs use these appointments to process some of the many online consultations we receive each day. Some are early (07:30-08:00) and some are late (18:30-19:15). If you would benefit from an extended hours appointment to fit in with your work or childcare commitments, please enquire with a Care Navigator.
If you are unwell with a new problem that has recently arisen in the last few days or hours, or sudden deterioration of an existing condition, you may need to be seen urgently by a doctor. We keep back appointments every day for this eventuality, so if you need to see someone we will aim to fit you in. Inevitably, because of the unplanned nature of the illness, we cannot guarantee that you will be able to see your usual doctor.
All patients requesting a same day appointment will be given one subject to availability. If all of those appointments have been allocated, the patient will be called back for further information by the Duty GP. If you do need to be seen for an urgent matter, please be aware that the doctors and nurses will not have time to discuss other existing problems, issue repeat medication or provide medical certificates.
Please consider other patients when requesting an urgent appointment. We ask you to reserve these for genuine urgent illnesses, rather than reviews of ongoing problems. Inappropriate use of these urgent appointments may mean that someone who is genuinely ill cannot be seen.
These additional GP appointments will be bookable through the city’s GP practices, and will offer patients greater flexibility and choice about when they can access primary care services. Appointments for the GP Extended Access Service will be made through your usual GP practice. If the practice can’t offer a suitable appointment we will offer to arrange a telephone conversation with a GP from the extended access service, who will offer advice over the phone, or arrange a face to face evening or weekend appointment if required. Face to face appointments will be available Monday to Friday between 4.00pm and 9.00pm; Saturdays between 9.00am and 4.00pm, and Sundays between 9.00am and 1.00pm.
Appointments will take place at a number of locations around the city, rather than at your usual GP surgery.
If you would rather see your own GP at this practice you will still be able to book an appointment in the way you do now, within our normal opening hours.
This GP Extended Access Service GP is being rolled out across the country as part of a national initiative from NHS England, and in Liverpool the service is being delivered by Primary Care 24, who have been successfully delivering Liverpool’s GP out-of-hours service for many years.
Online access to your GP with PATCHS
PATCHS is an online consultation service that allows you to quickly and easily access GP services online. All you have to do is answer a few simple questions and PATCHS will get you the help you need quickly.
You can get started using PATCHS in four simple steps:
- Accessing PATCHS: you can access PATCHS by clicking on the banner on the front page of our website
- Registering for PATCHS: you can access PATCHS by using the NHS App or NHS Login (if you have an account) or by registering for a PATCHS account. It is also possible to access PATCHS with a 'Guest Account' so you do not need to register, but this will mean that you will need to enter all your personal details every time you contact the GP practice and you will not have access to view historic requests.
- Logging in to PATCHS: Once you have registered, you can login by entering your registered email address and password.
- Submit your request to the Practice: Simply choose the appropriate option regarding your request and answer a few simple questions to help yus understand your problem. Your answers are then sent to us, and we will respond as quickly as possible during our opening hours. Initial responses may be via online message or telephone, and telephone, video consultation orface-to-face appointments will be arranged if needed.
In an emergency (e.g. severe chest pain, sudden disabling breathlessness, symptoms of a stroke, collapse or severe injury) please telephone the emergency services on 999.
Outside of the surgery opening times, if you need to see or speak to a doctor, but do not need an ambulance or the emergency department, and it cannot wait until the next working day when the practice is open, please telephone Primary Care 24 on 111 to access the Out of Hours GP service. Please do not use this service to call about an ongoing problem unless something new, unexpected and urgent has developed that can't wait until we are open.
People living in Liverpool can now access urgent medical advice online at: 111.nhs.uk . This free service provides health advice and signposting to urgent care services online, as a convenient digital alternative to using the NHS 111 telephone helpline. After asking you to enter your postcode and symptoms, it will give you tailored advice on how to manage them, and/or generate a call back from a healthcare professional, if required.
If you feel that it is safe to wait until the next working day, we always have appointments held back for urgent requests, but please ring as soon as possible in the morning (telephone lines open at 08:00), and tell the reception staff the nature of the problem so that they can ensure you are seen by the right clinician in an appropriate time-frame.
If you are unsure, speak to the Out of Hours GP service, who will advise you if they think it can wait, or if they think they should see you.
