West Heath Surgery offers a number of different types of appointments including face to face, telephone or video consultations. It can be useful to have a telephone or video consultation when you do not need to be physically examined by a doctor.
The surgery operates a booking system for all its appointments unless otherwise stated for specific clinics. This is done in order to allow you an appropriate consultation slot for your medical needs with the relevant clinician. An appointment system also allows you to attend the practice at an exact time thus reducing the period you may need to wait within the practice to be seen.
To book an appointment you can call the surgery on 0121 476 1135 or request online using the NHS App, or via the Website. Alternatively, you can use Accurx service to contact us in order to avoid any telephone queues.
Contact us with Accurx
You can contact a doctor, nurse or other healthcare professional online using a website called Accurx.
Urgent appointments
To request an urgent appointment, you can call us on 0121 203 2980 or send us an Accurx request as follows:
When you get in touch, we’ll ask what you need help with.
We will use your answers to choose the most suitable healthcare professional to help you. This could be a doctor, nurse, pharmacist, social prescriber or a member of the administration team.
Routine appointments
To request a routine appointment in advance, during opening times you can send us an Accurx request:
All routine Accurx requests would be responded within 2 working days
use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App) or 0121 203 2980 to book an appointment, screening test or vaccination
When booking appointments please remember the following points:
- If you know you need to book an appointment please book as soon as possible in order to obtain your preferred time and date. All the practice clinicians can be booked up to 6-8 weeks in advance in order to accommodate this.
- The receptionist will ask you for a reason for the appointment. This is done in order to book you the appropriate length of consultation with the appropriate clinician. The practice staff will not be offended if you prefer not to provide a reason however if an inappropriate consultation is booked, the doctor or nurse may ask you to re-book. All of the practice receptionists are bound by the rules of confidentiality.
- Please note that the doctors and nurses generally allow 10 minute consultations for each condition that you wish to discuss. If you want to get advice on more than one condition please advise the receptionist at the time of booking in order to book you an appointment with the appropriate length of time.
- An appointment is very valuable and therefore someone else could benefit from it if you cannot attend. Therefore please contact the surgery, ideally no later than 24 hours before the appointment time, to cancel it if is no longer required or needs to be rearranged. Patients that repeatedly book appointments and fail to attend or re-arrange with appropriate notice will be removed from the practice.
- You may request which clinician you would like to see, particularly in order to achieve continuity of care however please note that it may not always be in your best interest to see a particular clinician as each clinician has different skills and interests. It may not always be possible to see a particular clinician due to annual leave etc. Please note for all urgent appointment requests you will be allocated an appointment with the on-call doctor, which might not be your usual doctor.
Your appointment
However you choose to contact us, we may offer you a consultation using the most appropriate method. This could be by:
phone
face to face at the surgery
a video call
text or email
Telephone consultations
If there are no routine appointments available, or if you wish to simply talk to a clinician , you will be offered a telephone call back from the duty clinician.
In this consultation, the clinician may be able to answer your questions and help to solve your problem. Alternatively they can book you an appointment for you to see the most appropriate member of the team.
Non urgent telephone consultations can also be requested with a clinician of your choice, though this should not be used for urgent problems.
Punctuality
We would like to think that all our patients could arrive on time or before their allocated appointment time so that the surgeries can run smoothly and patients can be given the time and attention that they deserve.
However, if a patient arrives more than ten minutes late for their appointment then we cannot guarantee that it will be possible to be seen by the doctor and they will be asked to re-book. If late for a nursing team appointment, there will be no capacity to be seen and there will be a requirement to rebook your appointment. Please ensure plenty of time is made available to arrive for your appointment. Punctual patients will be given priority unless clinical needs dictates differently.
Appointments by phone, video call or by text or email can be more flexible and often means you get help sooner.
Patients who repeatedly fail to attend appointments without cancelling with the reception team will be removed from the surgery list in order to maintain a high standard of service to other patients.
Cancelling or changing an appointment
To cancel your appointment:
use your NHS account (through the NHS website or NHS App)
use the Accurx service
phone us on 0121 203 2980 during opening times
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 the BADGER service (Birmingham and District General practitioner Emergency Room) on 0300 555 9999.
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
What if I need a Chaperone?
Some medical consultations, examinations and investigations can be potentially distressing and leave patients feeling vulnerable, particularly for ‘intimate examinations’ or examinations being completed by a member of the opposite sex.
West Heath Surgery feels it is important for both its patients and team members to feel comfortable during clinical consultations. For most patients and procedures, respect, explanation, consent and privacy are all that is needed however should the circumstances occur when this is not the case, a Chaperone may be requested. Please note, a clinician may also request a Chaperone, should they feel it is appropriate.
All administrative team members of the Surgery are Chaperone trained- should you wish for a Chaperone to accompany you in your Face-to-Face consultation, please let the administrative team know at the time of booking or the time of attendance.