Our experienced administrative team will care navigate all appointments to make sure that the appropriate appointment has been made for you and also may signpost you to other services or clinicians in the practice. so please do not take offence if they ask the nature of your problem on answering calls. If you have booked an appointment online this may result in the administrative team contacting you via telephone for more information.
Urgent appointments
If you need an urgent appointment you will be offered an ‘on the day’ appointment with the on-call General Practitioner or the Nurse Practitioner. The nurse practitioner has undergone extensive training enabling her to offer this service and is able to prescribe.
To request an urgent appointment:
- phone us on 0161 226 0606
- visit the surgery and speak with a receptionist
Repeat prescriptions and fit noes are classed as routine problems and should be dealt with by routine appointment.
On the day appointments are reserved for urgent medical problems that need to be dealt with that day.
Routine appointments
To request a routine appointment:
Appointments available all day from 8am on the NHS APP
- use our appointment request form
- phone us on 0161 226 0606
- visit the surgery and speak with a receptionist
- use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App) Appointments available all day from 8am
When you get in touch, we’ll ask what you need help with.
We will use the information you give us to choose the most suitable doctor, nurse or health professional to help you.
Home visits
If possible please try to telephone reception before 11:00 am if you require a home visit.
You may only request a home visit if you are housebound or are too ill to visit the practice. Your GP will only visit you at home if they think that your medical condition requires it and will also decide how urgently a visit is needed.
You can be visited at home by a community nurse if you are referred by your GP. You should also be visited at home by a health visitor if you have recently had a baby or if you are newly registered with a GP and have a child under five years.
The Arch Medical Practice has a Housebound register which is reviewed on a regular basis. A clinical assessment may be needed to deem weather you should be on the register or not. We try to keep the register as small as possible to ensure all our Housebound patients can access the care and support they need.
We try as much as possible to meet patient demands by arranging regular contact or visits from the same GP. Unfortunately sometimes we are not always able to meet these demands due to unforeseen circumstances, for example sickness or training days. However your usual GP will be updated upon their return. We thank you for you cooperation and understanding with this.
Your appointment
We run an appointment based clinic offering different types of appointments. Routine GP appointment slots are face to face 15 minute appointments for ongoing problems. We also offer on the day telephone triage appointments, which are for new problems that need to be dealt with on that day.
From Monday 29th January 2024 all GP appointments & sexual health screening appointments will be given out via the NHS app. If you are a patient on our Vulnerable register, appointments can be made in person at the surgery, by telephoning during our opening hours. Please make a separate appointment for each person wishing to see the doctor.
We unfortunately can only offer appointments who are registered at the practice, we are not a registered walk-in service. If you would like to register with the Practice, please go to our new patients page.
The Practice offers a diverse variety of appointments to facilitate all patients. This includes face to face appointments, telephone based appointments and video consultations. We also have a wide variety of clinicians available at the practice that specialise in multiple clinical avenues to ensure our patients experience nothing but the best treatment.
Appointments slots are set to 15 minutes and so we may not have time to address a long list of problems. We may ask you to make another appointment if you have several problems you would like us to help you with. You can see any one of the doctors, regardless of whom you are registered with, but whenever possible, we recommend you consult with the same doctor throughout the course of any illness. If you need an urgent appointment you will be offered an ‘on the day’ appointment with the nurse practitioner or a GP telephone triage appointment.
The nurse practitioner has undergone extensive training enabling her to offer this service and is able to prescribe. Repeat prescriptions and fit notes are classed as routine problems and should be dealt with by a routine appointment. On the day appointments are reserved for urgent medical problems that need to be dealt with that day. Our experienced reception team will help you decide which appointment is appropriate for you so please don’t take offence if they ask you the nature of your problem. Please note we are an undergraduate teaching practice and may occasionally have student doctors present as well as other healthcare professionals such as student nurses and midwives.
We strive to deal with every medical problem to the highest standard for your safety, but this proves impossible if we are expected to deal with a number of problems in a ten minute appointment.
Also, please do not expect the doctor to deal with the problem of a relative or a child during your appointment. Please make another appointment if they need to see a doctor.
Practice Nurses
In a number of cases it might be worth considering an appointment with a practice nurse rather than a doctor. Practice nurses are qualified to deal with many ailments and you may be seen more quickly. When requesting a nurse appointment please tell the receptionist what it is for (blood test, smear, vaccination, etc), as this will ensure that you are allocated the appropriate time slot.
Late arrivals
The surgery policy is that if you arrive late for your appointment (10 minutes or more) the doctor or nurse will not see you and you will be asked to re-book. If you arrive late for your appointment but within the 10 minutes you will be asked to wait until there is a suitable slot for the doctor to see you If you are unable to wait to be seen then you should book another appointment.
Cancelling or changing an appointment
If you cannot attend an appointment for any reason please inform us as soon as possible in order for us to give the slot to someone else.
To cancel your appointment:
- phone us on 0161 226 0606
- using the GP online system – Patient Access
- reply CANCEL to your appointment reminder text message
- Cancel your appointment on the NHS App
- To change your appointment :
- phone us on 0161 226 0606
- using the GP online system – Patient Access
- reply CANCEL to your appointment reminder text message
- Cancel your appointment on the NHS App and re-book
Please make sure we have an up to date mobile number for you if you would like to take advantage of this service.
If you need help when we are closed
If you need medical help now, use NHS 111 online or call 111.
NHS 111 online is for people aged 5 and over. Call 111 if you need help for a child under 5.
Call 999 in a medical or mental health emergency. This is when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.
If you need help with your appointment
Please tell us:
- if there’s a specific doctor, nurse or other health professional you would prefer to respond
- if you would prefer to consult with the doctor or nurse by phone, face-to-face, by video call or by text or email
- if you need an interpreter
- if you have any other access or communication needs
Chaperones
If your doctor or nurse needs to examine you during your consultation, and you would like a chaperone to be present, please ask your doctor or nurse, and he or she will arrange one for you. In some cases, it may be necessary to delay the examination until staff trained as chaperones are available.