Appointments Waiting Times

Appointments

Consultations are made by phoning the Surgery during opening hours. Appointments are normally made for 15 minute consultations. Longer appointments may be necessary for insurance, employment medicals, driver’s licence medicals, full medical check-ups and some medical procedures.

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The aim of this Practice is to keep appointments running to schedule. However, priority will be given to urgent cases when necessary and this may cause some delays.

When Doctors run late, it is annoying for patients and stressful for staff and doctors. Quite often our consultations can run over time. Just 4 minutes extra per consultation means that the Doctor is 1 hour late at the end of the session.

You can assist us by the following:

• If you require a longer appointment, advise the receptionist at the time of booking and a longer appointment time will be allocated.
• Being understanding if the Doctor suggests you come back to address remaining issues.
• Understanding that a “fit in” or “brief” appointment is really for urgent/can’t wait conditions on the day, and that the Doctor will only deal with that urgent problem at that time.

Reception staff will inform you, where possible, of any delay when you arrive.

If a Doctor is running more than 30 minutes late, the reception staff will attempt to contact you.

You may wish to ring Reception 15 minutes before leaving for your appointment to see if the doctor is running on time.

New Patients are welcome at the Family Healthcare Erindale and standard 15 minute appointments are offered. If you think that you will need a longer appointment time you can request this when making your booking.

Waiting Times

The Doctors at Family Healthcare Erindale appreciate that your time is important and do their best to run to time.

To help your Doctor to run on time please be aware that a normal appointment is only 15 minutes. Please be mindful of how many things can be dealt with in this time. If you have a “list” of items to discuss please consider booking a long appointment or bear in mind that not all items may be attended to in 15 minutes AND you may be asked to book another appointment.

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We encourage patients who have bookings later in the morning or afternoon to call prior to coming in, to see if their Doctor is running on time.

We understand that at times some patients may feel unable to wait in the waiting room due to ill health or distress – if this is the case, please inform the reception staff and they will be happy to escort you to a more private room.