Tel: 0845 026 4418
Fax: 01626 888360

Useful Information for Patients of Barton Surgery
We hope you find this information leaflet useful and that it answers any questions you may have about our appointments system and our repeat prescription service.  Also included is information about our telephone system.  If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact the surgery.

TELEPHONING THE SURGERY: There are two numbers available to contact the surgery.  888877 is the normal surgery number that can be used at any time.  However, if you need to contact the surgery during our busiest time, first thing in the morning, please use 0845 026 4418.  This local call rate number allows easier access as you do not get the engaged tone but your call is held in a queue and answered in order.  This means you do not have to re-dial. 

When the surgery is closed, please dial 0845 026 4418 and your call will automatically be transferred to the out of hours service.

MAKING AN APPOINTMENT:  The Barton Surgery operates an appointment system to see the doctors and nurses.

Appointments with the nursing department can be booked in advance, up to 8 weeks ahead.

In order to comply with Department of Health Guidelines, our doctors’ appointment system operates as follows:

• A number of routine appointments are available to book up to four weeks ahead.
• We offer ‘same day’ appointments with the doctors and now feel we have the ratio of these appointments correct and can meet demand.
• Every afternoon, the duty doctor has an ‘emergency’ surgery.  These 5 minute appointments are designed to deal with acute problems, such as earache, chest infections, etc.  They are not long enough to deal with chronic health problems, which should be booked into the routine 10 minute appointment slots.
• The surgery is open for extra routine appointments on 3 mornings a week (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) from 07.00.  It is hoped that these times will help people who have to go to work so they do not have to interrupt their working day.  These appointments are pre-bookable.

It is important for you to decide which sort of appointment you need to make with the doctor.  If you know you are going to need to see a doctor, eg if the doctor needs to review you in, say, 3 weeks time, please make that appointment today because if you wait until the required day it may not be possible to make the appointment with that particular doctor.  This causes frustration for the patient when the receptionist says that the doctor is fully booked that day.

You may find that you have longer to wait if you wish to see a particular doctor, rather than booking the next available appointment with whoever is available.  This is your choice, but you must understand that this may mean a delay in obtaining an appointment.

PRESCRIPTIONS:  The surgery produces, on average, 1500 items on prescription per week.  To produce this amount requires a great deal of work:  they have to be inputted onto the computer, printed, checked, authorised and signed by the doctor, checked again and distributed to various points of collection.

We ask for your help so that mistakes are kept to a minimum:

• Request your repeat prescription in plenty of time before you run out
• Allow us 2 working days before coming in to collect your prescription
• Take care when requesting items on your repeat slip – only tick the items you require; it is not necessary to put a cross next to the items you don’t need
• If the item to be requested is not on your repeat slip, please give us as much detail of the item you need, ie name of medication, dosage, etc and it is then up to the GP to authorise its issue
• Do not over-order;  if your record shows that you are not due for a supply of your medication, a prescription will not be issued
• If you have arranged for your prescription to go to a chemist in the town, allow an extra day before collection and do not call into the surgery to try and intercept it as this causes more work trying to locate it

The biggest problem we have is when patients do not give us enough time to process their request, so please remember to give us plenty of notice when you need your prescription – do not leave it until the last minute.

We do not take requests for medication over the telephone.  You need to request these in writing and requests can also be faxed  (01626 888360)or emailed to us enquiries.bartondawlish2@nhs.net.

The doctors and staff at the practice work extremely hard to ensure the smooth running of a very busy surgery.  Please be assured we are doing our best to help you but sometimes it may not be possible to give everyone exactly what they want due to the demands on the service we provide.