Migrating to new telephone system – Go live date 14th February 2024.
NOTICE TO ALL PATIENTS
We are pleased to advise patients that we have a new telephone system to be installed, and this will be live from Wednesday 14th February 2024. Please be advised there may experience some down time between 8.30 and 1pm. And the switch over may result in patients waiting being cut off – we do apologies in advance but this is beyond our control.
Patients will not notice a huge difference in terms of calling us but you will notice that the messages you hear are slightly different. Please listen carefully to the options. This new system will be fully cloud based and thus gives us grater capacity for queue positions and there will be less occurrence of calls being lost within the system and not being answered. Our phone lines remain extremely busy. Rest assured we will continue to answer calls as quickly as we can. Please call us later in the day for non-urgent issues, routine enquiries and test results. Please use the online services (NHS APP, System online) where possible to avoid waiting and to ensure those with an urgent medical need can access us easier. Our Receptionist do a complex and difficult job in managing the calls demand and ensuring that patients are booked in with the correct clinician in an appropriate length appointment slot.
Patients are reminded that your local pharmacy can help with many queries about minor health conditions and injuries, and they are best placed to advise on over-the-counter medications – this will save you waiting unnecessarily. NHS 111 online is also a valuable source of information about health conditions and what to do – please visit www.111.nhs.uk