Order a repeat prescription
If you need regular medication on prescription, your doctor will usually organise a repeat prescription for you. This can then be ordered at set intervals without seeing the doctor in person. If you are a new patient to the practice, we will need to see you in person first to arrange this service.
Repeat prescriptions are normally issued on a monthly basis and can be ordered between 1.30pm and 5.00pm weekdays. Please telephone our main surgery line and select option 2 to be transferred. Alternatively, you can make your request in person, by post or online. You will need to be registered to use the online service. Please click here for more information.
Please note that we do need 24 hours notice or 48 hours if the request is by post. The prescription is passed to your usual GP for checking and signing, and this is usually not completed until the day following the request. The GP may ask you to make a routine appointment for review from time to time, and may occasionally not issue the prescription until this has occurred. Once completed, the prescriptions may be collected from our reception desk. Alternatively, if you supply a Stamped Addressed Envelope, we can post them back to you. Several local pharmacies also provide a collection service. Ask at reception for further details.
How to register
Before you are fully registered with the Practice, we ask that you complete a New Patient Health Questionnaire. Your medical record often takes a considerable time to arrive from your previous doctor and this gives us the opportunity of recording some basic information about you and offering you any immediate care you may need.
You will be registered with the Practice rather than a specific doctor, but you have a right to ask to see a particular doctor, if you wish. If you have a requirement for a prescription then you should arrange an appointment with a doctor of your choice to discuss your ongoing care.
We do not exclude patients from the Practice on grounds of race, sexuality, religion, social class, age, disability or medical condition. Please contact the surgery reception to join our practice.
How to make an appointment
Consultations with our practice team are by appointment only. We do try to ensure that all patients are offered a consultation within 48 hours. If you wish to see a particular GP or nurse then you may have to wait longer. You can make an appointment by phone, by visiting the practice or online.
To help improve our service, Betts Avenue Medical Centre also offers patients additional appointments outside of normal opening hours. These surgeries are provided at both sites and give patients improved access to our GPs. Consultations during these hours are by appointment only.
For further information please contact the surgery reception.
Find out about test results
Test results can sometimes take a while to become available. Please ring after 2.00pm if you want to ask about a result. The phones are less busy at this time and a receptionist should be able to help you with your enquiry.
As a general rule most blood tests results are available within a week, X-Ray results are back in about a month (although they can take up to 6 weeks at times) and cervical smear results are posted to you directly from the Contractor Services Agency within 8 weeks. Please be patient with the receptionists when you call; they are not medically qualified and can only pass on whether your Doctor has said the result is normal or not.
We will often ask people to arrange a telephone consultation if we feel the result needs explaining, asking you to call does not mean there is anything seriously wrong. Alternatively the Doctor may write to you about the results. We will always contact you as soon as we receive your results if there is any urgent action required
How to make a complaint
If you have a complaint or are concerned about the service you have received from any practice team member, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of the NHS system for dealing with complaints.
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, ideally at the time they arise with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint we would like you to let us know as soon as possible. This will help us to establish exactly what happened more easily. Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager, or to any of the doctors.
Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the Practice Manager in order to discuss your concerns. He will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be of great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.
We shall acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and will investigate your concerns within 10 working days. We will then be in a position to offer you an explanation, and/or a meeting with the people involved.
We aim to: - find out what happened and what went wrong - make it possible for you to discuss your concern, if you wish to do this - make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate, try to make sure that the problem does not occur again
We keep strictly to the rules of confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be required, unless they are incapable ( because of illness ) to do this.
