Our appointments
We offer telephone, video, face to face and online consultations. In line with NHS England guidance all of our appointments are telephone or online first, which can be converted to either a video or face to face consultation if you and the clinician agree it is the best way to help you.
Some things which are best suited to face to face appointments, such as nursing procedures, are directly bookable as face to face appointments.
Self referrals
You don’t always need to speak to a GP to be referred to a service. You can self-refer to the following services even if you are not sure if they are right for you as they will assess you and tell you whether they can help:
Physio Direct – for help with muscle and joint problems
Psychological Wellbeing Service – for help with mental health problems
Change, Grow, Live –for help with drug and alcohol problems
Citizens Advice bureau – for help with benefits and debt problems
How to make an appointment.
Request a consultation by phone,
Book appointments or a telephone call using our 24 hour telephone booking service Patient Partner (option 1 on the phone line)
book appointments or a telephone call online through System Online, the Airmid App or the NHS App
Submit an online consultation through the Airmid app.
Whilst our front door remains closed until what is happening with the COVID-19 pandemic is clearer, you can speak to reception through the intercom if you do not have access to a phone or the internet.
Our team
Appointments are available with a wide variety of clinicians and team members. When you ring to request an appointment the receptionist will ask you for some details to help direct you to the team member who can help you best.
Team member | Best Suited to |
GPs | More complex issues such as mental health and multiple conditions |
Emergency Care Practitioner | On the day problems, short term illness, injuries |
First Contact Physiotherapist | Bone and joint problems |
Social Prescribing Link Worker | Support with social issues which are impacting on your health |
Clinical Pharmacist | Medication reviews, Blood pressure reviews |
Nurse Practitioner | Chest and breathing problems. Family planning On the day problems |
Practice Nurses | Long term condition reviews Nursing procedures |
Health Care Assistants | Long term condition reviews Blood tests |
Prescribing team (consists of 2 prescribing clerks and 2 clinical pharmacists) | On the day prescription queries. Management of repeat prescription system including liaising with pharmacies. Medication reviews as part of the long term condition review process. Management of high risk drug monitoring. Adding medication to records from hospital letters and discharge letters. Support for GPs with care home rounds and queries from care homes. |
GP appointments
Most of our GP appointments are bookable on the day but we offer appointments bookable in advance through:
Patient Partner
System Online
Airmid App (the sister App to System Online)
NHS App, which links to your System Online record
Initial telephone call backs will be done in order of clinical priority so this means they could be at any time during the day. If there is a time you are not available then please let us know when you book the appointment and we will avoid that time. Face to face and video consultations will be at a mutually agreed time.
Appointments with other members of the team are also bookable online.
Evening and weekend appointments
These are available through the Cambridge GP Network at the following locations:
Nuffield Road Medical Centre
Comberton
Royston
St Mary’s Surgery Ely
Appointments offered include GP, nurse, blood tests.
If you would like to book one of these appointments please ask either by phoning reception or by emailing the reception email address.
What happens when we run out of appointments?
In order to provide safe healthcare we need to make sure our staff have a manageable workload. Unfortunately this means that inevitably we will run out of appointments. When this happens we still want to ensure that people who need to access our services are still able to. By this we mean people with urgent health conditions and people at risk of suffering health inequalities because they are less able to seek help due to a disability or other recognised reason.
Our GP appointments are in high demand at the moment as life gets up and running following the Covid-19 pandemic so inevitably all of our appointments will be booked. When this happens you will be offered a choice:
If you contact us by phone the receptionist will ask you for some more details to see if a different member of the team can help you
You may be offered an appointment with Cambridge GP Network in one of the “surge hubs “. This tends to be best for new problems.
You may be offered an evening or weekend appointment with Cambridge GP Network.
If none of these are suitable your request will be placed on our extras list. A clinician will review the request and will either book an appointment with a team member for that day or contact you with a plan, which may include booking a call on a different day from a GP who knows you better or asking you for more information such as submitting photos. You should be asked how you would like to contacted eg by text, email or phone. It is difficult to guarantee a call back time in this situation.
Continuity
If you are someone for whom continuity of care is important please let us know which GP you prefer to see when contacting the practice. Ways to improve continuity include booking appointments in advance with your preferred GP and using online or Airmid messaging to send us a message for non-urgent issues. If you are calling on the day, it helps if you call on a day your preferred clinician is here. The timetable below shows the sessions for which clinicians are usually available.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
Morning | Dr Brookes Dr Wood Dr Salkield Dr Clark Dr Hobbs Dr Asghar Dr Kerr Dr He Nurse Dorte | Dr Brookes Dr Wood Dr Clark Dr Scahill Dr Asghar Dr Kerr Dr He Nurse Dorte | Dr Hobbs Dr Asghar Dr Kerr Dr Watson Dr He Dr Wyatt Nurse Dorte | Dr Brookes Dr Wood Dr Salkield Dr Kerr Dr He Dr Wyatt | Dr Brookes Dr Scahill Dr Watson Dr Wyatt |
Afternoon | Dr Salkield Dr Clark Dr Asghar Dr Kerr Dr He | Dr Wood Dr Clark Dr Kerr Dr Watson Nurse Dorte | Dr Brookes Dr Salkield Dr Clark Dr Scahill Dr Hobbs Dr Wyatt | Dr Salkield Dr Kerr Dr He Dr Wyatt | Dr Brookes Dr Scahill Dr Watson Dr Wyatt |
Long term condition reviews
If you live with one of the following long term conditions you will be offered an annual review in your birthday month which will include an appointment with a clinician to take bloods and take physical measurements such as your weight and blood pressure. You will then have a follow up appointment with the most appropriate member of the team which will include your annual medication review.
High blood pressure
Heart disease or stroke
Diabetes or prediabetes
Serious mental illness, dementia, or a learning disability
Asthma or COPD
Rheumatoid arthritis, Coeliac Disease, Severe Frailty, Post-Bariatric Surgery