When are you booking a telephone consultation online, please provide a reason and preferred telephone number.
For minor injuries that have occurred within the last 48 hrs, patients should visit their local Minor Injuries Unit at Dawlish Hospital or Newton Abbot Hospital.
* Please note, for early and late surgeries, our extended opening times before 8:30 am and after 18:00 are for patients with pre booked appointments only. The telephone lines are switched to Out of Hours Services from 6:00pm to 8:30am Mon- Fri and at weekends. If you need to cancel an appointment for early or late surgeries, please call us between 8:30 – 18:00 to speak to a receptionist.
Channel View Medical Group operates “Doctor First.” You can get an appointment by telephone and get a call back from the Doctor on the same day. Patients will be invited in by the Doctor, not the Receptionist, if it is considered necessary.
The receptionist will routinely ask you for a brief reason for your call. This is to ensure that you are booked in with the appropriate clinician and so that they know what you will be talking to them about before they call you back.
Appointments are usually for 10 minutes and for one problem only; if you need more time then please ask the Doctor and they will be able to make extra time for you.
If you have any special requirements (eg hearing difficulties) either call in to Reception or contact us in writing and we will be more than happy to arrange a face-to-face appointment with a doctor for you.
If your working hours make it difficult for you to utilise our system, please explain to the receptionist who will be able to liaise with the doctor on your behalf to arrange an appointment or discuss other options such as evening and weekend appointments elsewhere. We also offer commuter clinic calls after 18:30 and early morning/later evening appointments to try to improve access for working people.
Nurses based in our practice treat patients for a wide range of common conditions.
- Tell us if you are in a telephone box. We will ring you back. Say immediately if your call is an emergency.
- If more than one person in the family needs to be seen, please be advised that separate appointments will need to be made.
- Tell us if you want someone to accompany you during an examination or a private room to discuss any matters. Remember that the results of tests can only be given to the patient.
- You can book a telephone call with a doctor but you don’t need to telephone at 08:30. Please specify which telephone number you wish the Doctor to contact you on.
You can help us by:
- Being on time for your appointment
- Letting us know if you need to cancel. Please ring your relevant Surgery and inform them via the phone.
- Calling for a home visit or urgent appointment before 10:00am
- Ringing for the results of tests after 11:00am
Reception
Our reception teams have been trained to deal with all of your enquiries. The receptionists, deal with queries, repeat prescription requests, home visit requests and operate the practice computer system. Our receptionists will have to ask for details of your condition in order to assess the degree of urgency. We can assure you that ALL information is dealt with in complete confidence. To cover our long opening hours we operate a shift system for receptionists to provide optimum cover at all times. We try to answer all telephone calls promptly, however delays may still occur at peak times and we ask for your patience should you have to wait for attention.
Home Visits
If possible please try to telephone reception before 10:00 if you require a home visit.
A doctor or nurse may phone you back as it may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance.
Home visits are only available for patients who are housebound because of illness or disability.
Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the surgery.
Consent
Patients of Channel View Medical Group are cared for by multi-disciplinary teams which consist of GPs, practice nurses, practice staff, Midwives, Health Visitors and members of the coastal Community Nursing Team and social care.
There are times when we need to discuss your care needs with this wider team to deliver the best possible health care for you.
Unless you specifically refuse to allow us to discuss your care needs, we assume your consent for this. Indeed, this has been usual custom in the past but now it is considered best practice to give written notice of this. However, please consider this carefully as it may adversely affect the quality and standard of care which we can offer you.
