IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BEST WAYS TO GET IN TOUCH
NHS England has instigated an Access Recovery Plan requiring all practices to move to delivering Modern General Practice. This shall ensure that any patient who requires assistance from their GP surgery can access the correct care as quickly as possible.
Two areas have been focussed upon being:
- Sign-posting to the most appropriate care provider for your need (as the GP is not always the best person to assist) as quickly as possible and;
- Ease of getting through on the phones.
Non-urgent advice: Please Note
If you have an urgent need, we always recommend calling the Practice on 020 8630 3476 as soon as possible however request that you phone before 11am for morning urgent medical assistance or before 5pm for afternoon help.
If a medical emergency, always PLEASE CALL 999 OR ATTEND ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY AT YOUR NEAREST ACUTE HOSPITAL (West Middlesex University Hospital if within the Practice’s Catchment area).
In order to help us keep call waiting times to below our target of 10 minutes, please use the below pathways to request assistance. For the below requirements, if at all possible, please do not call, but submit any request as below:
PLEASE SUBMIT A SYSTMONLINE REQUEST WHICH CAN BE ACCESSED BELOW OR VIA THE HOME PAGE OF THIS WEBSITE for:
- Routine appointment requests– a GP shall then triage your request and signpost you to the most appropriate clinical provider e.g. a GP, Practice Nurse, Health Care Assistant, Physiotherapist, Pharmacist, Pain Management Specialist, Dietician, Mental Health Specialist Nurse, Social Prescriber and more.
- Fit Notes– Please be aware that fit notes are not provided for issues which have been ongoing for less than 7 days. Patients are able to self certify for this period. Any requests submitted for issues over 7 days are triaged by a GP in case can be provided without the need for an appointment. If requesting a new fit note for an issue for which you have not been seen at a clinician at the practice or hospital, you shall be sent a link to book a routine appointment. Please be reassured that fit notes can be backdated where appropriate.
- Medication Requests– the easiest and best way to request repeat medication is still via Online access. The practice can provide access for you. If for medications not on repeats or you are unable to obtain Online Access, please submit your request via using the “Contact Us Online” button below to submit a request.
- Admin requests– a member of the Admin team shall process your request and contact you to confirm/ resolve.
- Referrals (To chase, request a recently missed appointment or chase a follow up only)- these shall be forwarded to the Practice Secretarial Team who can provide the contact details for you to chase yourself or contact the referee on your behalf, where appropriate and advise. Please note, new referral requests shall be signposted to the most appropriate clinician to discuss and request.
- Online Consultation
After feedback from patients in relation to accessing assistance from your GP practice, Willow Practice have activated a new Online Consultation tool SystmConnect.
PLEASE USE THE NHS APP OR ONLINE ACCESS FOR:
- Repeat Prescription requests- note that you are able to free type with these options if you require any changes. Please only use this for issues in relation to prescriptions.
- To book routine GP appointments when these have been requested by a Clinician. You can request either an in person or telephone/ video consultation by choosing the relevant appointment types. Please note, you can free type which you would prefer if your preferred option is not available at a convenient time. Please also write a brief description of your problem that you wish addressing during the appointment as this also helps the clinician.
NHS APP
The NHS App appears to be the way forward for Primary Care management ongoing. Currently you are able to book appointments, request repeat prescriptions, check your health record and receive messages from your GP Practice, but the NHS anticipates more functionality to be rolled out.
Limits are being allocated to practices in respect to the number of SMS messages which are sent out including requests to book appointments, updates and responses to queries from patients, appointment confirmation booking confirmations and reminders, Friends & Family survey tests and more. Once these limits have been reached any additional costs shall be passed back to the practice.
Messages sent (and read within a few days) via the NHS App are not part of these allocations so for every message sent and read via the App saves the Practice funds to be able to use to provide even more clinical appointments and Reception/ Admin staff to assist patients.
Please therefore either download the NHS App to your phone or tablet via NHS App on the App Store (apple.com) or NHS App – Apps on Google Play or on your PC or laptop via Log in – NHS App Online (service.nhs.uk)
Contact us
PLEASE EMAIL US AT [email protected]:
- To request an update on any Registration applications.
- If you are unable to use the “Contact Us Online”, Online access or the NHS App for the above.
Please only call the Practice for non-urgent medical attention or if you are unable to access the above options and continue to hold until the Reception team is able to get to your call.