Appointments

Home visits are for patients who can't leave their house and need to see someone in person. If you think you need a home visit please explain why this is needed.

Request a home visit

1. Request an appointment online - this is the easiest and quickest way. It can avoid a potentially long wait on the phone.
2. Request an appointment on the NHS app
3. Telephone: 01865 597023 (lines open from Monday to Friday between 8:30am and 6pm)
4. Ask a nominated relative or carer to come to Bury Knowle or Barton Surgery​ and speak to one of our receptionists. We must have your consent to speak to this person on your behalf.

Try to contact us before 10am if you can. If it's urgent, we'll get back to you on the same day, and if it's not urgent, we'll respond within 24 hours. Depending on the problem you have, either a paramedic or a GP will come to see you.

You must give your employer a doctor's 'fit note' (sometimes called a 'sick note') if you've been ill for more than 7 days in a row and have taken sick leave. This includes non-working days, such as weekends and bank holidays.

Visit our Sickness Certificates page

Information and advice for travelling abroad.

Visit our Travel Information page

The practice offers some early morning, evening and weekend appointments for certain services. Enhanced access appointments are available at the practice for certain services such as vaccinations, health checks, smear tests and blood tests.

• Appointments need to be pre-booked, as we do not offer a walk-in service.

Appointments are available on: 

• Tuesday Mornings: 7am to 8am
• Wednesday Evenings: 6:30pm to 8pm 
• Friday Mornings: 7am to 8am
• Saturdays: 8am to 12pm (once a month, the Saturday appointments are extended to 5pm)

Appointments are available with GPs, paramedics, pharmacists nurses and healthcare assistants and cover all the usual services offered including vaccinations, health checks and screenings.

For non-urgent matters, expect a response from us by text, email, or call within 24 hours of your request. If you make a request after 12:30pm on Fridays, you may not hear back from us until the following Monday (or Tuesday if it's a bank holiday).

Upon response, you may receive:

• Information on how to deal with your concern
• An appointment with the most appropriate member of the team to help you. This will either be a GP, nurse, pharmacist, social prescriber or paramedic. Visit our surgery staff page for details
• Requests for further information
• Confirmation that your request has been forwarded to the relevant team member.

Appointments offered will be either by phone or face-to-face. Face-to-face appointments are available at Bury Knowle or Barton Surgery. If you need to change the type of appointment or where it is, check out the change or cancel appointments section.

We aim to see you within the national standard of 2 weeks, but often appointments are available much sooner. The wait may be longer in some cases. This is especially true if you prefer to see a specific staff member.

For problems requiring same day attention you will be contacted by one of our acute team. For non-urgent problems, an appointment will be booked with the most appropriate member of the team to deal with your issue. This will be either a GP, practice nurse, pharmacist, mental health nurse or paramedic.

The NHS, including GP practices, is under a lot of pressure, which makes it hard to provide the level of service we want for our patients. Reviewing or 'triaging' requests helps us prioritise urgent needs for same-day or next-day appointments. It also helps us to make sure people with less urgent issues get an appointment within the national target of 2 weeks.

A lot of patient questions or problems don't actually need a GP appointment. Our team can often give you simple advice or direct you to an alternative staff member who can help. For example, pharmacists can help with medication, and social prescribers are great for social problems. These team members have the specialist knowledge needed to address your query more effectively.

This approach also helps us make sure you can see the same GP whenever possible, which is important for ongoing care.

Yes!

We are more than happy for patients to change their appointment to a face-to-face if they would prefer this. The GP assessing your request may recommend a phone call as they think your issue is unlikely to need a clinical examination. Many people prefer telephone calls as they don’t have to take time off work or arrange childcare to attend their appointment.

If you would prefer a face-to-face appointment then contact us online and ask for your appointment to be changed and our receptionists will send you a confirmation text. Alternatively, please call the surgery on 01865 597023. Letting us know your preference for a call or a face to face when you submit your appointment request helps us to get this right.

If you have been scheduled for a face-to-face appointment, it indicates that the GP believes an examination may be necessary, such as for abdominal pain or a lump. In such cases, we kindly ask that you attend the appointment as you will only need a further appointment arranging if an examination is deemed necessary during a telephone call. If you would prefer a telephone consultation however and do not anticipate needing an examination, please request the change online or by phone, and our receptionists will confirm the change via text message.

We understand the convenience of scheduling specific times for phone calls. However, at present, we can only allocate time slots for morning, afternoon, or evening calls.

GP time is under significant pressure, and various factors can affect the timing of phone calls. Some patients may not answer initially, others may miss their appointments, and clinical needs may cause appointments to run over or be shorter than anticipated. Additionally, urgent issues may arise unexpectedly, further impacting call timings. Flexibility in call scheduling allows us to manage our workload more effectively. We appreciate your patience, understanding, and support in this matter.

Having your phone readily available during the half-day or your appointment is helpful. If this is not possible, please indicate so in your online request for care.

Rest assured; we make a minimum of two call attempts. If you miss the first call, we will try again later before considering it a missed appointment.

Please let us know which GP you’d like to see when you request your appointment and we will do our best to accommodate this. We appreciate that continuity is very important for some patients and if appointments are available with your preferred GP you will be booked in to see them.

Unfortunately, we may not always be able to accommodate these requests as there may be no available appointments with this GP (for example if they are on annual leave) or the wait to see them may be over 2 weeks. If this is the case you will be offered an appointment with a different GP.

If you’d prefer not to have this appointment and to see your usual GP please contact us. If appointments are available with them this will be arranged but please note the waiting time may be over 2 weeks. If there are no appointments available with your usual GP we will let you know so that you can decide to keep your original appointment or contact us another time when appointments with your usual GP are available.

Yes but please bear in mind that appointment waits for different GPs will vary. You may have been offered an appointment with a different GP as there may be no appointments with your usual GP (for example if they are on annual leave) or the wait to see your usual GP may be over 2 weeks.

If you prefer to wait longer to see your usual GP then please contact us.

If appointments are available with them this will be arranged. If there are no appointments available with your usual GP we will let you know so that you can decide to keep your original appointment or contact us another time when appointments with your usual GP are available.

Yes, absolutely. If you received a text with advice about how to manage your problem, this means the GP who has reviewed your request thinks this is a safe and effective way of managing your problem. We recommend you follow their advice and if your problem does not improve to contact us again.

If, however, you would still like to discuss your problem please contact us and mention that you received a text but would like an appointment. This will then be arranged for you.

Please telephone the practice on 01865 597023 and the reception team will be happy to assist you.

For us to know how to deal with your request effectively it is essential that we have a good understanding of it. The more information we have the more likely you will be directed to the right member of the team to deal with your issue in a safe and timely manner.  Our reception team are trained in care navigation and are committed to the highest standards of communication and confidentiality.

The reception team will no longer be booking appointments directly without them being triaged by a clinician. All methods of completing the triage forms, either online, in person or over the phone will be assessed equally.

Please be assured that anything you discuss with a receptionist will be treated with absolute privacy and respect. All staff within the Hedena Health team, including receptionists, sign a confidentiality agreement, meaning anything you discuss with them is not shared inappropriately. The more information you tell our receptionists the more likely it is that you can get the help you need from the most appropriate member of the team in a safe and timely manner.

Yes, you can submit the form on behalf of the patient (although please write on the form that you are doing so) and can put the contact number that we should either contact the patient or their representative on. Please note that due to patient confidentiality we cannot discuss anything about one of our patients unless they have explicitly given permission for us to do so.

You can still use the contact form if you don’t have a mobile phone, you just need access to the internet such as on a computer or tablet device. You do need to provide a contact number of some kind but this could be a landline if you don’t have a mobile phone. Please contact us and let us know

If you would like to develop and improve your digital skills to become more confident using the internet or mobile devices there are a number of free courses available to help. There are also services that can provide free mobile data packages and refurbished mobile devices if this is a barrier to you accessing healthcare.

For more information please see our Digital Skills and Accessibility page

For those with access to a mobile phone or internet, our online form will be a more convenient way to contact the practice, which should free up our phone lines for those who really need them such as the elderly or those who are particularly vulnerable. If you or your relative cannot use the form please contact us and speak to one of our receptionists.

If you would like to develop and improve your digital skills to become more confident using the internet or mobile devices there are a number of free courses available to help. There are also services that can provide free mobile data packages and refurbished mobile devices if this is a barrier to you accessing healthcare.

For more information, please see our Digital Skills and Accessibility page

Please read our Disability Access page for more information about reasonable adjustments.