Contacting
The Primary Care Centre
Patients who feel that they
need to contact a doctor during the hours when the surgeries are closed,
should in the first instance telephone their own doctor's surgery. Instructions
will be given with the appropriate telephone number to call.
Using
The Service
All patients who require
urgent care outside normal surgery times must telephone the out-of-hours
service in order to make the necessary arrangements. The primary care
centre does not operate a walk-in service. The co-operative can only
accept patients who are registered with a doctor who is a member or
those who are staying in the area on a temporary basis.
The out-of-hours service
is provided for patients whose condition is urgent and cannot wait until
their own surgery re-opens. Patients who develop such acute problems
during the course of normal surgery hours should contact their own surgery
and clearly state the urgency of their condition so that arrangements
may be made for their own general practitioner to see them.
The out-of-hours service
should not be used as a means of obtaining a second opinion for on-going
problems.
On
Contacting The Service
The receptionist taking the
call will require the patient's name, surname, address, telephone number,
age, gender and the symptoms which you feel require urgent attention.
[The receptionist will offer a centre consultation to all patients or,
will promptly pass the details of requests for telephone advice or a
home visit to the doctor on duty.] The doctor will telephone back as
soon as possible and will do so in order of clinical priority according
to the information provided. The doctor on duty has the responsibility
and right to decide whether a patient's problem can be safely dealt
with by telephone or requires a face-to-face consultation. The doctor
also has a right to decide whether or not a home visit is appropriate.
The doctors sympathise with patients who do not have ready access to
transport and regret that the NHS does not provide such a facility at
present. It may not be possible to provide a home visit simply to overcome
transport difficulties when the medical condition does not warrant it.
Life-threatening emergencies
will be referred directly to the Ambulance Service, in order to provide
the most appropriate care and prompt transfer to hospital in the interests
of the patient's safety. The primary care centre staff will make all
the necessary arrangements for an emergency ambulance and notify the
hospital of the patient's expected arrival. Patients with injuries which
may need to have urgent x-rays taken, will be advised to attend the
Casualty Department. General practitioners do not have access to out-of-hours
x-ray or laboratory facilities.
The primary care centre staff
will notify your own doctor of your attendance and treatment provided
before the next scheduled morning surgery.
Comments
And Complaints
We seek to provide the highest
quality of care and may from time to time survey our patients in order
to determine their satisfaction with the service received. Unsolicited
comments and suggestions about the service are welcomed.
You are entitled to complain
about any aspect of our service. The co-operative undertakes to investigate
such complaints according to the provisions of the NHS Complaints Procedure.
Comments, suggestions or
complaints should be addressed to:
The Manager, Redbridge
GP On Call,
Outpatients
Department, King George Hospital, Barley Lane Goodmayes, Essex IG3 8YB
Telephone:
020 8970 5733
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