From 1st April 2022, repeat prescriptions cannot be ordered over the phone. Read More
Appointments
The surgery doors and telephone lines are open from 8:00am to 6:30pm (Monday to Friday) for GP, nurse and other healthcare service appointments. Consultations can be booked up to four weeks in advance and are by appointment only.
Extended opening hours (7:30am - 8:00am on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays) are available for patients who find it difficult to attend during normal surgery opening times.
Appointments can be booked via telephone or online via Patient Access.
Telephone consultations and home visits are available on request.
Further information on appointments is available below.
Making Appointments
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Please make appointments by calling at the surgery during opening times or online.
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An appointment is 10 minutes for one person only and separate appointments should be made for other persons requiring a consultation.
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Although you are free to see any of the doctors in the practice, we believe patients benefit from seeing their usual doctor, whenever possible, to ensure continuity of care.
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The receptionists can provide further information on the availability of individual doctors and the times of specific clinics.
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If you feel that you will require additional time with the doctor, please inform the receptionist who will give you a longer appointment.
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Requests for immediate/urgent appointments may be passed onto a doctor who will discuss the problem and arrange an appropriate appointment. You will be seen by a doctor, although it may not be the doctor of your choice. An urgent appointment is for that condition only - further appointments must be made for other unrelated problems.
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Patients arriving late for their appointment by 10 minutes or more will be asked to make a new appointment on another day.
Cancelling Appointments
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We require 24 hours notice for a cancellation.
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If you wish to cancel your appointment, please inform us as soon as possible, as this enables receptionists to give the appointment to someone else. Please do not waste appointments
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Appointments can be cancelled by visiting the surgery, calling reception, or online via Patient Access.
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Appointments cancelled within 24 hours will be recorded as non-attendance if we cannot fill the cancelled appointment.
Home Visits
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Home visits should only be requested when you are too ill to physically attend the surgery. This does not include those who have no transport or do not wish to leave a pet alone. Should a visit be necessary, please ring the surgery before 11.30am, as this helps the doctors plan rounds - only urgent requests should be made after this time.
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Ill children will always be seen by arrangement if brought to the surgery - this is usually quicker than a home visit. If you move house, please let us know immediately to avoid delays on a home visit.
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Please remember that several patients can be seen at the practice in the time taken for one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the surgery.
Telephone Guidance
Telephone Consultations
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If you need to simply speak to a doctor or nurse, please request a telephone consultation - it may be more appropriate than a normal appointment.
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If the doctor is not available to speak to you when you call, we have allocated telephone consultations for each doctor, meaning the doctor will call you back within a prearranged time period to speak to you.
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Please give your contact number to the reception staff so we can ensure the doctors can return your call
Telephone Advice
We have very high number of calls during from 8am to 10am and 11am to 1pm, especially on Mondays and Fridays. The following guidance has been provide to help you improve your telephone access to the surgery:
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Please think about exactly what you want before making the call and try to be as concise as possible.
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If you require a planned/routine appointment (i.e., in 3 or more days time), try ringing the surgery after 3pm or book online.
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If you require a routine appointment within 48 hours, try ringing between 1pm and 3pm.
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If you require a same day appointment, you must ring before 1:00pm. If we have no appointments available, you will be offered the chance to speak with the duty doctor, who will arrange an appropriate appointment.
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Cancel your appointment online, making more appointments available (8% to 10% of doctor appointments are wasted each month by patients not attending appointments).
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Remember your appointment time, avoiding the need to make a telephone call to check the time.
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Do not order repeat prescriptions by telephone - See more information here.
Telephone Access
Recent patient surveys have shown that we need to improve our telephone access. We acknowledge our patients' views and have undertaken a number of developments to enhance our telephone service:
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New telephone system and call distribution
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Provided staff awareness training
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Provided online services as an alternative means of access
We will also be taking further actions during the coming months to significantly improve telephone access for our patients.
Missed Appointments
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As part of our aim to improve patient access to appointments, we have recently undertaken an audit of patients failing to attend appointments without cancelling them. The audit highlighted that a small number of patients waste a significant number of appointments.
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In fact, during a six-month period till 31/12/2017, 158 patients failed to attend 3 or more appointments, wasting a total of 602 appointments. Overall, 9% of appointments were wasted by patients failing to attend appointments without cancelling them. This behaviour reduces available appointments for other patients and wastes valuable NHS resources.
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We have a responsibility to ensure that NHS funding and our appointments are used appropriately and, therefore, we have introduced a system to identify patients frequently failing to attend appointments. We will be writing to those patients to explain the implications of this behaviour. Patients who continue to waste appointments will be removed from the surgery list.
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Please click here for guidance on how to cancel appointments.
Extended GP
Access Service
Extra GP Appointments Available for Walsall Patients
Patients registered with a Walsall GP can benefit from the Extended GP Access Service. NHS Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has worked with local GPs to create four “hubs” based at Darlaston Health Centre, Pinfold Health Centre, Broadway Medical Practice, and Portland Medical Practice. The hubs are currently run by local GPs.
From launching the service in December 2017 until May 2018, more that 15,500 patients accessed the service.
When can I get an out-of-hours appointment?
Extra GP appointments are available between:
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6:30pm - 9pm on weekdays
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10am - 3pm on weekends (excluding Darlaston & Portland)
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11am - 1:30pm on bank holidays
However, people will only be seen if they have booked an appointment.
How can I book one of these appointments?
A dedicated number has been set up and appointments can be booked by calling 01922 501999 during the following times:
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8am - 9pm on weekdays
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10am - 3pm on weekends
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11am - 1pm on bank holidays
NHS 111 will also be able to book an appointment for you if they feel you need to see a GP.
Do I need to be registered at one of the three “hub” surgeries to use the service?
No, you can be registered with any GP in Walsall to access the extra appointments. You will, however, need to be able to travel to one the four hubs.
What if I’m not registered with a Walsall GP?
If you are not a registered patient at a Walsall GP, you will not be able to access these out-of-hours appointments.
When should I use the “hubs”?
The extra appointments are for patients who require a routine or same-day GP appointment but are unable to attend during normal opening hours. However, they are not walk-in centres and you will require an appointment - these can be booked up to 7 days in advance. Please note that both of Walsall’s urgent care centres and its A&E department will still be open as normal for people to use in serious or life-threatening emergencies.