Appointments

• Being on time for your appointment
• Letting us know if you need to cancel your appointment
• Calling to request a home visit before 10:30am,  (please note all home visit requests are triaged first)
• Phoning for test results after 2pm
• Telling us if you are in a telephone box. We will ring you back. Say immediately if your call is an emergency.
• Letting us know if more than one person in the family needs to be seen. We can give you a longer appointment if necessary.
• Advising us that you require a chaperone during your examination
• If you wish to discuss a private matter please inform a member of our reception team as we do have a private room available on request.

Condition Checker

Appointments System

If your condition is non-urgent and/or you would like to see a particular GP then you can book a routine appointment. We use a system that allows routine appointments to be booked up to three weeks in advance.

We now offer routine telephone appointments with a GP where appropriate. Please speak to a receptionist for advice to see if this applies to you.

For continuity of care we would recommend patients to book follow-up appointments with the same GP wherever possible.

When you book an appointment the receptionist may ask you what the problem is. The receptionist is not trying to be awkward or nosy but merely trying to find out what the most appropriate course of action is to take in order to deal with your call in the most efficient and effective way. On many occasions we find that appointments are booked with a doctor when a telephone consultation may be more suitable or an appointment with the nurse or health care assistant may be more appropriate. Due to lack of information at the first point of contact means we can't help the patients more efficiently or effectively and we as a practice are trying to avoid any unnecessary use of doctor appointments and minimise inconvenience to you, our patients. We understand that not all patients will feel comfortable disclosing information regarding their problem with the receptionist and if you do not wish to that is fine.

Please note: all appointments are a maximum of 10 minutes in duration. If you have more than one problem to discuss, please consider booking a double appointment.

Ways to book:

1. Download the NHS App
2. Book via SystmOnline
3. Complete an eConsult
4. Telephone: 01670 829889 (Bedlington Branch) / 01670 823917 (Cambois Surgery)

This is open to any Gables/Cambois patient and covers:

• Medical problems which may need attention on the same day such as new problems and/or new symptoms
• Acutely unwell children who may need to see a GP.

We encourage patients to come to the surgery when we are open instead of accessing other services such as walk in centres and A&E.

If you feel you need to be seen on the day we would advise you to ring the surgery ideally before 10:30am. The receptionist will ask you for some details with regards to your problem, this is to try and help deal with your call in the most efficient and effective way.

You will be placed on a triage list and a member of our clinical team will call you back. If an appointment is required then they can book this for you.

Our telephones lines can be extremely busy at 8:30am each morning, if you are ringing with a query it may be best to try at quieter times such as after 11am and for test results we ask that you ring after 2pm.

We request that you do not use the telephone triage system for ‘Fitnotes’.

We provide GP and nurse appointments on a: 

• Tuesday: 7:00am – 8:00am
• Wednesday: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
• Thursday: 7:00am - 8:00am
• Saturday: 8:30am – 12:30pm (We are only open 1 in every 4 Saturdays, for dates please speak to a receptionist).

If a GP or another member of our health care team believes you need hospital treatment or specialist care elsewhere, they will ask you where and when you would like to go and they will refer you.

If you would prefer to have some time to think before deciding where and when to have treatment, you will be offered the option of calling the practice at a later date to confirm your preference.

or by phone for patients who may require British Sign Language or for patients for whom English is not their first language.

Please let us know if you require this service when booking your appointment as we will need advance notice to book.

They will spend several weeks with us in order to gain the experience they need to become family doctors. You will be informed if there will a student present before your consultation and asked to complete a consent form.

If you do not wish a student to be present you have the right to opt-out.

Over the past couple of years we have seen an increased use of telephone appointments and online consultations such as e-consultation being offered by the surgery. In conjunction with these new consultations, we have seen an increase in the use of photography to help when assessing and diagnosing a problem.

To protect both our patients and our team, we adhere to strict guidelines about the request, receipt, and storage of any images we ask you to send us.

All staff are advised to provide adequate explanation to the purpose & benefit of sending in a photograph to the patient. This must consider the age and/or capacity of the patient. Before any images can be received the patient or parent/carer must give their full consent.

We use Accurx (texting service) for receiving photographs. If you are asked to send in an image you will receive a text message with a link which also asks you to confirm your consent. Once received your images will be saved securely in your medical record.

Please do not send in any images without being expressly asked to do so. Clinicians will generally be the ones who request this but on occasion you may be asked to provide a photograph by the reception team to help give the clinician more information before they ring you. An example of this maybe if you ring to speak to a GP because you have a rash, the reception team may ask you to also send in a photograph to help the GP when assessing your problem/area of concern.

It’s important to note that by law, we cannot receive any images of sensitive areas of any patients under the age of 18. For patients over the age of 18, the law is different, and images can be sent. However, we would usually agree a different method of consultation for reviewing sensitive areas and would not ask for an image.

Any images sent without express permission or that exceed permission given may be deleted and subject to further action.

We may also contact you with targeted information related to your health and well-being, if you wish to opt-out of this service please advise a receptionist.

In an EMERGENCY call 999.
Emergencies are situations that cannot be managed at home and may be life threatening