Appointments

Our appointments system offers the following depending on which is most appropriate:

• A face to face
• Telephone consultation 
• Sign posting to local community services i.e. pharmacy
• It also may not be with a GP; we have a nursing team who maybe more appropriate to deal with your query as well as local community services. 

Same Day Appointments/Telephone Triage

If you ask for a same day appointment, our highly trained reception team have been asked by the GPs to ask a series of questions over the telephone to ascertain the nature of the call, how soon the patient needs to be contacted & who is the most appropriate person for the patient to be directed towards. Every day, GP practices receive requests for help or advice through patients ringing or walking in.

Every day, GP practices receive requests for help or advice through patients ringing or walking in. For each patient request, the practice needs to decide:

• Why they have sought help from their GP
• What kind of help the patient needs
• How quickly the patient needs help
• Who is the best person to help the patient
• Where the patient should be seen

The answers to these questions help the practice to help patients based on their needs. This process is called triage. Triaging is essential when you may be dealing with hundreds of patients a day, all with different needs, requests, and health backgrounds.

e-Consults

e-consult allows patients to safely contact their GP surgery without having to come into the practice. eConsult collects all the details your GP surgery needs to decide on the right care for you and you will receive a response by the end of the next working day.

e-consult is available from 24/7. If you urgently need medical advice please call the surgery on 01202670111 – DO NOT SUBMIT AN e-CONSULT. 

Evening & Weekend Appointments

There is now an enhanced access service for patients of Poole Town Surgery. These are additional GP, nurse practitioner and nursing appointments in the evenings and weekends.  They are run from the 5 surgeries that make up Poole Central PCN. If you are given an appointment at one of these surgeries the receptionist will let you know the site and address.

PCNs are groups of GP practices working closely together, alongside other primary and community care staff and health and care organisations to provide integrated services to their local populations. 

The practices involved in your Primary Care Network are:

• Poole Town Surgery
• The Newman Practice
• Lifeboat Quay Medical Centre
• Rosemary Road Medical Centre
• The Adam Practice
• Evergreen Oak Surgery

Appointment Information

• An emergency triage appointment is to treat your  presenting condition and is for one patient only. Please make a  routine appointment to discuss any other problems you may have
• We do not advise telephone consultations for any problem that would require an examination.
• Patients can see the doctor of their choice & for ongoing & long-term health problems, we encourage to see the same doctor for continuity of care.
• If you are unable to keep your appointment please  notify the surgery as soon as possible by telephoning reception.
• If you are ringing to speak to the doctor to discuss  the result of an investigation or a recent hospital   treatment, check with reception first that any important results or letters have been received;  Ideally hospitals now know they should inform patients of their results if they have requested the investigation as they have the specialised  knowledge to explain the implications in detail.

Please be assured receptionist are bound by the same confidentiality code as the GP’s and our staff adhere to the Practice’s Confidentiality Policy and Data Protection Act 2018. We would appreciate for you to give as much detail as you can to our reception team, but we also understand this is not always possible.