Appointments

Appointments can be made by telephoning the Practice from 8am each morning

Please note, our telephone lines are extremely busy from 8am each morning and you may experience a delay in your call being answered.  Our reception team answer all calls as quickly and safely as possible and we are grateful to our patients for their patience whilst awaiting their call to be answered.

Our call queuing system allows 40 patients to be placed in the call queue at any one time.  If you are advised that your call cannot be connected, this means that our call queue is full and you should attempt to contact the practice again.

We do not offer an online booking service as this prevents our trained reception staff from navigating patients to the most appropriate health care professional if your medical condition is better assessed and treated by a different health care professional such as a dentist, mental health practitioner, physiotherapist, the Pharmacy First service etc.

Patients not seen within the last three years may ask for a consultation with a GP. Patients aged 75 and over who have not been seen by a GP within the last twelve months may ask for a consultation. Patients may consult with a doctor of their choice. 

Please note, patients are registered with the practice and not a particular doctor.  If you wish to see a particular doctor, you should discuss this further with a member of our reception team.   

URGENT APPOINTMENTS

Your urgent appointment request may be triaged by a doctor to ascertain how best to deal with your request.  Where this occurs, our reception staff will enquire with yourself the nature of the medical problem.  This is to allow the on-call doctor to triage any request in order of importance.

Patients who genuinely need to be seen urgently on the day will always be seen but if your problem is not urgent, the doctor will advise you of an alternative course of action.

Patients should note that all of our clinicians take part in seeing patients booked in for urgent appointments.  This means we cannot provide patients with a choice of clinician.  If you are provided with an urgent appointment, you will be advised of the time to attend the practice.  As these are urgent appointments, we cannot provide patients with an option of times to attend.

The practice partakes in an extended hours service.  This services assists patients who may find it difficult to attend the practice during working hours.  Our service operates on a Monday only and is based within our Newport building.  This service allows for both GP and nurse appointments to be booked.

Appointments are available to book in advance. Appointments will be between 7.30am and 8.30am

If you require an extended hour appointment, please inform the receptionist who will be happy to assist you further.

Appointments with nurse and the healthcare assistant can be made by telephoning the Practice.  

Our practice nurses work Monday to Friday and offer a variety of appointment options.  Sometimes, our reception staff will enquire with you what the appointment is for.  This is to ensure you receive an appropriate appointment as our practice nurses are qualified in different areas.

Our healthcare assistants also work Monday to Friday 08.00 - 16:30.

Home Visits

If possible please try to telephone reception before 10:00 if you require a home visit.

You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed.

You can be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.

Sickness Certificates

You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. Your employer may however require you to complete a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website.

Evidence that you are sick

If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to give them some form of medical evidence to support payment of SSP (statutory sick pay).

It is up to your employer to decide whether you are incapable of work. A medical certificate, now called a 'Statement of Fitness for Work’ (see below) from your doctor is strong evidence that you are sick and would normally be accepted, unless there is evidence to prove otherwise.

You could also provide evidence from someone who is not a medical practitioner, e.g. a dentist. Your employer will decide whether or not this evidence is acceptable. If your employer has any doubts, they may still ask for a medical certificate from your GP.

Statement of Fitness for Work - ’Fit Note'

The 'fit note' was introduced on 6 April 2010. With your employer's support, the note will help you return to work sooner by providing more information about the effects of your illness or injury.

For more information see the DirectGov website (where this information was sourced)

Renewal of a Fit Note

Patients who have been issued with a fit note from a GP can request an extension to their fit note if they feel their medical condition has not improved and still requires them to take time off from work.

To renew your fit note, you can either:

• Telephone the practice after 10am each morning to request a renewal.
• Pop into the practice and discuss further with a receptionist.
• Email your request to Fife.F21609tayview@nhs.scot

Patients who use our email system should detail "Fit Note Renewal" in the subject line and provide the following information in the email:

• Your full name, date of birth and address
• A contact telephone number
• The medical reason for your fit note
• How long you are requesting an extension for e.g. 2 weeks

If you do not hear back from the practice, you can assume your fit note will be ready to collect from the practice after 2 working days.  The practice will contact you if the doctors wish to discuss your request further.

Please note, we do not email copies of fit notes to patients for confidentiality reasons.

These are appropriate for either new problems or more chronic illness where your question can be answered without having to take time off your work.

Please do not use this service for serious health problems or complex issues requiring more than a couple of minutes brief discussion. Please request a face to face appointment for such conditions.

Patients should note that the doctor may still request to see you following a telephone consultation if they need to examine you further.

Where our reception team feel a request for a telephone consultation is not suitable, they will suggest you arrange a face to face appointment.  Examples include patients complaining of acute abdominal pain, ear ache, chest infection.

FAILURE TO ATTEND OR CANCEL AN APPOINTMENT

Missed or failed appointments are a waste of a valuable resource. Our policy is the following:

If a patient fails to attend two routine appointments in one twelve month period, a warning letter will be issued.

If a further routine appintment is missed within the same twelve month period, the patient will be removed from the patient list.

Please assist us by contacting the practice ASAP if you cannot attend your appointment as this allows for another patient to use your appointment.

LATE FOR AN APPOINTMENT

If you are going to be late for an appointment, please contact us to let us know.  If you are more than 10 minutes late for your appointment, we may have to ask you to rebook.  This is because other patients are waiting to be seen and any delays can lead to a backlog of patients then becoming late themselves.