Appointments

How to see a Healthcare Professional

All of our patients have a named GP as we feel that this promotes continuity of care and a closer doctor-patient relationship.

If your own doctor is away, you need to see a clinician urgently or your needs can be met by an alternative Healthcare Professional, our reception team may book you an appointment to see one of our Practice Matrons, Emergency Care Practitioner, Practice Nurses or Healthcare Assistants.

Most minor health conditions including infections, rashes, ear and eye problems can be dealt with without you having to see a GP which is why our reception team will ask you for a brief reason for your appointment to be able to navigate you to the most appropriate clinician.

Consultations

All consultations are by appointment only.  Our appointment line, 01255 222121 (option 1) is answered from 8.30am to 12.30pm and from 1.30pm to 6.00pm. Appointments may also be made at the reception desk at the surgery or online, once you have registered for this service.

To book an appointment, please visit our Consulting Room

To cancel an appointment

St Osyth Surgery

Patients registered in St Osyth will usually be expected to attend the branch surgery there. An appointment system is in operation and access to the clinicians is similar to the arrangements in Clacton. Please make all appointments and arrangements by telephoning 01255 820309 directly during surgery hours.  We endeavour to see all medical emergencies the same day.

Telephone Consultations

A Clinician is always willing to speak to you on the telephone for advice at the end of morning surgery.

By ringing the main surgery number 01255 222121 if you are registered at Clacton and 01255 820309 if you are registered at St Osyth, one of our reception team will take and message, you may be given a time to ring the surgery back for a reply or advised that a GP, Matron or Nurse will ring you directly.

In the case of an emergency, one of our clinicians will take your call straight away.

Triage

Many of you will know that we have now adopted a triage system for urgent appointments with the doctor.  We know that this is not universally popular and we would like to explain the reasons for adopting this system.  We have a limited number of urgent appointments each day to ensure that we offer a quick and efficient service for those who need urgent help.   We have a duty to offer clinical advice to a patient from a doctor or nurse within 24 hours and we meet this requirement by responding to urgent requests to be seen with a telephone call from our nurse.  There are many occasions when the nurse is able to assist the patient and provide the necessary care or relay messages to the doctor.  This service releases the urgent appointments each day for those patients who need to be seen by a doctor.  Our doctors have many “routine” appointments available each day and these can be booked in advance (up to 15 weeks).  We do, however, need to keep some appointments each day for urgent reasons and the doctors at the surgery have approved this new system which makes the best use of their time and that of the nurses.

There is always a lot of pressure on the appointments of a doctor if they are going to be, or have been, away and we know that at these times some patients have to wait longer than usual to get an appointment with their own GP.  The triage system also helps to make sure those patients who need to be seen urgently are seen by their own or another doctor in the surgery.  For all appointments with doctor or nurse, please telephone our appointments line on 01255 222121 or book on line via our website.