Getting a GP appointment

Instead of contacting the surgery to book a GP appointment for yourself, we now ask that you send in a contact form (see the ‘Contact us online’ link below) to tell us about why you need to see or speak to a doctor.

The information you put on this form will be read by a doctor who will then either contact you directly to find out more about your problem, or offer you an appointment; or they may ask a receptionist to book a routine appointment for you. Alternatively, the doctor may recommend that you go to a community pharmacist who can diagnose and recommend treatments for minor conditions, or the doctor may send you useful information about your problem, if they think this is the most helpful approach for you.

If you need a nurse appointment you can still book this by telephoning reception on 01223 365555.

*For patients registered with the Red House Surgery or ARU Medical Centre only

The contact form is open Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays) for online requests between 08:00 and 15:00. Sometimes, due to high demand and if capacity is reached, patient contact form may close earlier than 15:00. However, if your request is medically urgent for that day, please do ring the surgery and speak to reception.

Our phones are open from 08:30 – 18:00. After 18:00 please call NHS 111 or in the event of a medical emergency at any time, dial 999.

Non-urgent advice: Recorded phone calls

It is the policy of the surgery to record all telephone calls coming into and going out of the practice. It is important to record calls so we can monitor and improve the service we provide, and investigate complaints and incidents with accurate information. This contributes to the safety of the care you receive and the accountability of individuals within the practice.  

Recordings are stored securely by our telephone provider ‘Daisy Communications’ and only accessed and listened to by authorised personnel within the surgery when necessary. 

Consultations

In order to protect you (so that the doctor makes the right decisions) and in order not to delay the patients after you, we ask that you restrict consultations to ONE medical condition, rather than expect to have a number of unrelated problems dealt with at once.

Referrals

If you want a referral to a specialist, you will need to be seen by our doctor first.

What happen if you are late?

PLEASE arrive BEFORE your appointment time

We understand how busy people are, and how difficult the Cambridge traffic can be, but we really do need you to arrive in good time for your appointment because …

If you arrive late for your appointment several things may happen:

The doctor or nurse may NOT see you because there is not enough time to see you safely.

They may try to see and treat you in a shorter amount of time which:

  • puts additional pressure on the doctor or nurse and impacts their ability to do their job well,
  • increases the risk of mistakes being made, or things being missed.

You may have to come back another day which means:

  • your first appointment is wasted clinical time,
  • your second appointment could have been used for someone else who needed it,
  • you have the inconvenience of having to come back to the surgery.

We don’t want any of these things to happen, so please help us to treat you safely by arriving a few minutes before your scheduled appointment time.

Thank you for understanding.