Appointments

Appointments

Here at Montgomery-House Surgery, a range of clinicians and specialists support our GPs to offer a variety of services.   It may be that a trained clinician is better placed to help you than your GP and it’s important that you are booked in with the right clinician for your medical issue so our Patient Co-ordinators will direct you to the most appropriate care.  Along with GPs, we are able to offer appointments with:

  • Nurses
  • Paramedics
  • Healthcare Assistants
  • Pharmacists
  • Pharmacy Technicians
  • Counsellors
  • Social Prescribers
  • Physiotherapists
  • Midwives

 

GP appointments

Our GP appointments are ‘telephone first’, you can read more about that here:

We do not offer a walk-in service for appointments.

All our patients have a named GP and wherever possible, to allow for continuity of care, your GP appointments will be with your named GP who will have a better understanding of any ongoing issues.  On occasion you may need to see a different GP for example, if it is in a specialist area, such as joint injections, dermatology, coil fittings or women’s health, or when your GP is away from the surgery. 

If you need to see your GP, please contact us on a day that they normally work – you can see which days your GP works here

You will usually be offered an appointment the same day, and if your named GP’s list is full of they are away you may be seen by another GP or clinician.

Using our online eConsult service allows your GP to review your issue and medical record before they call you and means they are able to treat you more quickly.  eConsult also allows you to self-refer to other health providers for physiotherapy, mental health issues, optometry, weight loss, and sleep issues for example.  Your eConsult will be assessed by our triage team and you will be contacted and treated by the most appropriate clinician, this may be your GP, our Pharmacist, a Practice Nurse or Paramedic, a Physiotherapist, a Social Prescriber or a Community Pharmacist.   You can submit an eConsult here

For some procedures or issues, we are able to pre-book appointments with your GP, these include:

  • Joint injections
  • Coil fittings
  • Baby 8-week health checks
  • Medicals
  • Learning Disability health checks
  • Appointments requiring an interpreter

We do not offer an emergency service, so for medical emergencies you should contact 999.

 

Blood Test Clinics

Since March 2024 and until future notice – we now run a Walk-in Blood Clinic for our patients on SOME weekday mornings from 8am to 10am.  These clinics now run each Monday, Thursday and Friday (we hope to resume a full weekday service again in the future and will communicate this when it happens)

  • Important conditions apply as follows:

These clinics are for patients aged 16 and over.

The test must have been requested by your GP or the hospital, in which case you’ll need to bring in the form that you’ve been given.

These sessions are designed to be quick walk in clinics, if you know you’re likely to need a longer appointment or would prefer one, then please call to book a timed appointment.

An appointment should be booked if you’re a patient who’s uneasy about the process or you have experienced difficulty when called to give a blood sample in the past.

Nurse and Healthcare Assistant appointments

We are able to pre-book appointments with our nurses and healthcare assistants and our Patient Co-ordinators will advise when a face to face appointment is needed.  For some reviews or services, you may be asked to complete an online form prior to your appointment  – pill checks, travel advice and vaccinations, asthma and COPD for example.

Minor Illness team

Our minor illness team operates on a same day basis and consists of Nurses, Paramedics, Physiotherapists and Pharmacists, who are able to help with a variety of issues including sore throats, rashes, minor injuries, and medication queries.

If after seeing the Minor Illness team, your condition needs to be reviewed by a GP, and your usual GP is working that day you will normally be seen by them, but this cannot be guaranteed.

Community Pharmacists

Don’t forget that your community pharmacy are able to help with many minor ailments and your Community Pharmacist can provide expert advice and treatments for minor ailments – please Think Pharmacy First.

This helps us free up appointments for issues that need to be seen by a GP or Clinician.

 

Extended Hours Access (Evening & Weekends)

We provide access to GP, Nurse and Heathcare Assistant appointments between 6.00pm – 8.00pm every Tuesday.  These can be face to face or telephone appointments offered here at Montgomery-House.

We also offer GP, Nurse and Heathcare Assistant appointments between 8.00am – 1.00pm every Saturday at Bicester Health Centre.

Appointments are booked through our Patient Services team with some appointments available in advance and others held for same day booking (booked on Friday for Saturday morning). 

For more information on Extended Hours Appointments please click here.

Walk-in Blood Clinics – PLEASE SEE LATEST MESSAGE FURTHER UP ON THIS PAGE

We offer a Walk-in Blood Clinic on some weekday mornings from 8am to 10am.  Please report to the Front Desk on arrival.

The test must have been requested by your GP or the hospital, in which case you’ll need to bring in the form that you’ve been given.

You may need to wait up to an hour before being seen by our Healthcare Assistants.

Due to the nature of a walk-in clinics this is only for patients aged 16 and over.  We would also advise those who are uncomfortable having their blood taken to book a normal appointment where more time can be allocated.

Home Visits

If you are housebound or too ill to visit the Practice, your GP may book a home visit with you. They will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and they will decide how urgently a visit is needed. As an alternative, your GP may direct the paramedic Primary Care Visiting Service (PCVS)  to attend in the first instance.  The paramedic will liaise with your GP as appropriate to determine the appropriate treatment for your needs.

You can also be visited at home by a District Nurse if you are referred to them by your GP, and you should also be visited at home by the Health Visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with us and have a child under five years.

Routine questions or requests

Please use our Online Request Forms for routine questions or requests here

This helps us to keep the phones free for urgent issues, and also allows us to find the appropriate answer to your question and respond to you by email if appropriate.

Making an appointment

You can make an appointment by telephone or, for some services, online through Patient Access.  Our online appointments are available here

Or use our online eConsult service …

eConsult

eConsult allows you to provide us with information about your condition without visiting or calling the surgery.  You can even add pictures to help show what your issue is and this is particularly helpful for skin conditions and some injuries.  It allows us to quickly triage your request to the right clinician or to signpost you to the appropriate external health provider, and allows our clinicians to begin your treatment sooner.

With the information provided we will either:

  • Call you to discuss your medical issue
  • Arrange a face to face consultation
  • Text you the health information required

eConsult also gives lots of self-help information and provides links to various external health providers where you can self-refer including – Minor Eye Conditions Service (MECS), Physiotherapy, Child Mental Health, NHS “Sleepio” App, Sexual Health Clinics, Counselling, and Weight Loss programmes.  It is important you are available that day to receive a call back from your GP and where asked to attend a face-to-face consultation.

Do you need an interpreter?

Language interpreting – we are able to arrange either telephone or face-to-face foreign language interpretation for your consultation.

Deaf interpreting – we are able to arrange for a sign language interpreter for either video or face to face appointments.

If you need an interpreter, please advise the Patient Services team when you book your appointment.   As you will appreciate we require advance notice to arrange this.  Normally appointments are given extended time to allow for this.

NHS 111

You can contact NHS 111 by dialing 111

NHS 111 is much more than a helpline – if you’re worried about an urgent medical concern, you can call 111 to speak to a fully trained adviser.

The NHS 111 service is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by a team of fully trained advisers. They will ask questions to assess your symptoms and, depending on the situation, will then:

  • Give you self-care advice
  • Connect you to a nurse, emergency dentist or GP
  • Book you a face-to-face appointment
  • Send an ambulance directly, if necessary
  • Direct you to the local service that can help you best with your concern

Click here for more details on when to use NHS 111

Appointment reminder text service

Please ensure with have an up to date mobile phone number for you so we can send you an appointment reminder for pre-booked Nurse and Healthcare Assistant appointments  This also allows us to contact you about annual review reminders, changes to your appointment, and updating medical records.  

 

On arrival

When you do need to come to the surgery for a face to face appointment, on arrival, please let us know you are here using our Express Check in Screen.

It is very important that you arrive on time for your appointment – we suggest 10 mins early to give time to check in. If you arrive late, it may not be possible for your doctor or nurse to see you, or you may have to wait till the end of that session.

We try to run to time as far as possible, but sometimes the doctor or nurse may need to spend more time with a patient, or is called out on an emergency, so please bear with us if you have to wait.

You will be called by a notice appearing on the TV screen and by an announcement in the waiting room – “Mr Jones please go to Dr Scales in Room 1”.

If possible, please obtain a weight/height measurement or blood pressure reading from our automated units before seeing your clinician.  These are located downstairs opposite Room 3.

 

Chaperone

If you are attending alone but would like to have a chaperone during your consultation, please let our Patient Services team know when booking your appointment.  You can request a chaperone on arrival but we may have to move your appointment or wait until one is available.

Your Consultation

A routine consultation will normally be 8-10 mins. Other consultations may be longer (20-30 mins) and are only available at set times and our Patient Services will advise you if you need an extended appointment.

Your GP will ask you various questions and may examine you at the same time.

If you bring a friend or chaperone with you, it will normally be assumed that you are happy for the GP or nurse to discuss your medical condition openly or undertake an examination with them present.

 

Cancellations

If you are unable to attend a booked appointment, please let us know as soon as possible so the appointment can be given to another patient.

Don’t forget with online access you can book and cancel your appointment very simply and quickly.